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Java Rocks On Linux

Posted by emmett on from the benchmarks-for-all-my-men dept.

Begonia writes "While we're on the subject of Java, I'm really impressed with its performance on Linux these days. I'm using IBM's latest (1.3) version of the JDK, which has only been out for a couple of months. And I just stumbled across this latest set of benchmarks for various JDK's on Linux and Windows here. Not dated, but must be at most a couple of weeks old. Lots of very interesting food for thought."

4 of 156 comments (clear)

  1. More Java benchmarks by harmonica · · Score: 5

    Fact is, you can't say Java is fast or slow, it depends a lot on the context.
  2. hardware time is cheaper than programmer time by woggo · · Score: 5
    Good points, mac.

    What a lot of people fail to realize is that a lot of "java performance problems" are caused by sub-par java programmers who don't understand how costly some operations are. Another entire class of performance problems are caused by bad algorithms. An O(n) algorithm coded in QuickBasic will outperform an O(n^2) algorithm hand-coded in assembly language for most possible inputs.

    OK, so all things being equal, using smart algorithms, and not abusing the language, java is still a bit slower than C. Big deal! In most cases, it doesn't matter. Server-side apps are blocking on I/O most of the time anyway; client-side apps are blocking on user interaction most of the time. For projects with hard real-time requirements, you have the RTJ standard; if you're really speed-hungry or are doing serious systems work, then you can write it in C.

    However, my employer could buy a middle-range Sun workstation for what he pays for my time in a week, and I'm a lot more productive in Java than I am in C. Furthermore, because I pay attention to engineering and design issues, other engineers can re-use and subclass my code without modifying it. If I've used good algorithms, avoided stepping on the GC, and steered clear of known performance problems (like the + operator for Strings and the unnecessarily synchronized Java 1 collection classes), then my code is probably fast enough. If it's not, then it's a lot cheaper for my boss to requisition a faster machine than it is for him to pay me for an extra two months to chase pointers and re-model object-oriented systems in procedural code.


    ~wog

  3. Java strong at the server, weak at the client by claes · · Score: 5
    As a professional Java developer for a little more than 2 years, I have to say that Java has still a some way to go for client applications. Swing is still too slow, and garbage collection makes the GUI to freeze every now and then. Also, the Windows Look and Feel is not very windowish. For example, wheel mice are not yet supported by Swing, and this has been very problematic for us as our customers where used to use the wheel, and had a very hard time to accept it stopped working when we switched from AWT to Swing.

    On the server side it is different. Java is a very nice language to develop in. The class library is HUGE and having the flexibility to support several platforms at the server is very good and something we surely will take advantage of in the future. It seems to be easier to optimize server side JVMs also.

    Java is here to stay, especially at the server. Those who flame Java for its weak points (small client applications) should look closer on the areas where it rocks, before discarding the language as a whole.

  4. Re:Java is plainly too slow. by macpeep · · Score: 5
    Java is plainly too slow

    *yawn*

    Obviously it's fast enough for the couple hundred thousand or so (millions?) of Java coders and companies that use it every day in mission critical applications all over the world.

    Seriously, I doubt you have any real world experience with Java if that's still your take on it. Yeah, three years ago, it wasn't fast enough. Things have dramatically changed since then.

    Anyone can code a crappy app in C and say "woah! look, it sucks! it's slow!". That doesn't prove that C would be slow - it proves that the code sucks. In the same way, an amateur not knowing what he or she is doing with Java can see slow apps. If you know what you're doing, the situation is different.

    I don't know about the rest of you here but I'm getting very tired of the same old "Java is slow" and "I've never seen any real apps in Java" myths here on Slashdot. The very fact that someone claims that shows that they are not in the industry and have no idea what's going on in the Real World (tm).