Why Java will not die

For many years, there has been a discussion that Java’s days are numbered. While one side claims we won’t use it anymore in a couple of years, the other side insists that Java is an old dog and it is not going anywhere. While some developers tend to underestimate Java’s ability to survive, there’s, sure, a lot of evidence proving they are wrong.

Where did uncertainty come from?

The fuss around Java ‘dying’ has been going for ages. It has been expected that Java could quit the stage many times for more than 20 years of its existence. But the biggest concern about its survival abilities settled in people’s minds after Apple had announced that it would no longer support it due to security reasons. Everyone remembered what had happened when Apple did the same thing to Flash and panic began.

Is there a real problem with Java?

The answer to this question is no. After the Apple announcement, Oracle invested a generous amount in Java and made it resistant to hacker attacks and stronger in general. With all the support that Oracle gives it, we won’t witness Java disappear anytime soon.

There’re numerous reasons why it will stay

Despite any doubts, there’re strong facts proving we won’t see Java implode in the foreseeable future. And here’re just some of them.

1. Java is old but stable

This language is scalable, stable and widely used. It allows developers to keep their code well-structured and easy to maintain. Java is a base for a number of platforms designed for software development. It ensures effective operation on different architecture systems. There’s a wide range of libraries written for it and more that 9 million professionals using this language every day.

2. Banks and financial institutes trust it

Other languages might be out there, but overall Java is an industry standard. Financial institutes are securely based on it. Stability of Java is their choice. However, even imagining, there is an invention of something better. The process of switching to another system is expensive, painful and slow. We won’t see any new brand substituting Java in the nearest future, it just doesn’t seem realistic.

3. Java is universal

It’s widely used in a humongous amount of fields. Major corporations use this language in a variety of projects from small to large. A number of devices using Java is over 3 billion. Thanks to Android, it is one of the most popular platforms for mobile development.

4. There’s no better Virtual machine than JVM

JVM is a cross platform, well tested and optimized for the multi-core machines runtime environment. It contrives to manage hundreds of threads. Thanks to this ability, many other languages appeared on the JVM as well as cross-compilers and emulators running on top of it. It’s impossible to find anything better or even like that.

5. There’s no substitute for it

Java offers a good performance, simplicity, compatibility and safety. It is easy to monitor, upgrade and scale Java-based services. It can be used for any task. Java is a flexible open source language, which can solve any problem relatively fast. It also means that developers using Java are one of the most productive. What we can observe is that this language continues to be number one choice for businesses all over the world.

While some developers hate Java, the reality is that it won’t go anywhere anytime. Every programming language has its own haters, and Java is not an exception. But there’s reliable statistics proving them wrong. According to the TIOBE Programming Community Index, Java is the most popular language in the world. None of the competing technologies can outpace it. With the Oracle support, it might keep the lead for many years to come.