Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: How Dead Is Java? (jaxenter.com)
This week HackerRank reported Java is now only the second most popular programming language, finally dropping behind JavaScript in the year 2018.
Now long-time Slashdot reader shanen asks about the rumors that Java is dead -- or is it?
Can you convince me that Java isn't as dead as it seems? It's just playing dead and will spring to life?
This week one Java news site argued that Java-based Minecraft has in fact "spawned a new generation of Java developers," citing an interview with Red Hat's JBoss Middleware CTO. (And he adds that "It's still the dominant programming language in the enterprise, so whether you're building enterprise clients, services or something in between, Java likely features in there somewhere.") Yet the original submission drew some interesting comments:
Now long-time Slashdot reader shanen asks about the rumors that Java is dead -- or is it?
Can you convince me that Java isn't as dead as it seems? It's just playing dead and will spring to life?
This week one Java news site argued that Java-based Minecraft has in fact "spawned a new generation of Java developers," citing an interview with Red Hat's JBoss Middleware CTO. (And he adds that "It's still the dominant programming language in the enterprise, so whether you're building enterprise clients, services or something in between, Java likely features in there somewhere.") Yet the original submission drew some interesting comments:
- "The licensing scheme for Java kills it..."
- "Java programs still are 'the alien on your desktop'. They suck in many ways. Users have learned to avoid them and install 'real programs' instead..."
But what do Slashdot's readers think? Leave your own answers in the comments.
How dead is Java?
It's alive and well server-side. It's dead on the desktop because it's dreadful, slow, memory-hungry and extremely annoying each time Oracle forcibly imposes things that break legacy applications.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
It's dead .. in that it's now the NUMBER TWO MOST POPULAR LANGUAGE IN THE WORLD?
Wow. Perhaps my understanding of the meaning of "dead" is misinformed.
The commentary here seems to center around Java as a language for desktop applications or similar.
It's not. It hasn't been for decades.
Java is used mostly to make enterprise-class server-side software. It's used extensively in the financial services sector.
Most of the code for any FI's web applications you interact with is Java. And so is all of the backend code.
And it's not going anywhere in that space.
That's a little bit like asking "is Linux dead?", simply because it's not a popular desktop OS. Just because the majority of users don't realize they're interacting with something, doesn't mean it's not widely used. In the case of Java, the Android platform is a major client-facing deployment. However, the majority of enterprise and webservices are still Java/Java EE and that application is growing, driven by the move to the cloud and the popularity of microservice architecture in new enterprise installations.
JavaScript obviously is a bit deal too, given the increasing importance of heavy client-side web-apps. But most of those webapps have Java on the back end.