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Thirty years ago, Sun Microsystems unveiled Java’s first developer’s kit to the world with a bold promise to “write once, run anywhere”.
The gambit was laid down to Microsoft, which was seeking the opposite goal – to lock people into a Windows ecosystem.
Three decades on, that freedom proved more potent in keeping people locked into the general-purpose language than anything Microsoft could do.
Today, Java remains firmly in the TIOBE Index top 10, while 90% of Fortune 500 firms run some Java. It runs on more than three billion devices across all manner of hardware, helped by Google choosing Java for its primary Android development language in 2008.
“Typically languages survive (not in terms of use, but in terms of popularity) for 10 years at the most, and very few languages have survived this long,” says Venkat Subramaniam, the founder of Agile Development Inc.
A recipe for success
Java’s staying power isn’t just because it’s the least-worst option, reckons Subramaniam. Instead, it boils down to three key ingredients: platform-independence, community, and adaptability.
Java emerged just as the web was taking off in the mid-1990s, offering a platform-independent language during a pivotal shift in software development.
“It was a perfect time for the web technology,“ says Subramaniam. It was built to solve real problems with a practical mindset, especially on the server side. This purpose-driven foundation helped it gain early traction and long-term utility.
This helped foster a community with real staying power. “I’ve never seen a community as passionately, genuinely interested in promoting the language,” says Subramaniam. “It’s the community that is pulling the language forward, rather than an organization pushing it forward.”
The community’s strength comes to the fore in the ecosystem of libraries and frameworks like Spring and Hibernate, and conferences like JavaOne, which was revived in 2022, and grassroots conferences such as Devoxx.
Constantly adapting to the times also helps, adds Dewan Ahmed, principal developer advocate at Harness. “Java may be turning 30, but it’s far from showing its age – as it continues to underpin much of modern software development,” Ahmed explains.
“Java’s longevity lies in a rare balance: consistent backward compatibility paired with continuous evolution. The Java Virtual Machine’s ‘write once, run anywhere’ principle still resonates, while the syntax has evolved over the years to become more concise, without sacrificing its stability.”
“A strong emphasis on backwards compatibility makes it very stable and very appealing for large organizations that don’t want to keep moving forward,” Trisha Gee, a Java champion, author and leader of JetBrains’ Java developer team says.
The JVM itself – the virtual machine that executes Java code – plays a central role in its staying power. “The JVM is not just ‘write once, run anywhere’. The performance is so good because they’ve spent 30 years refining this,” says Gee.
This allows developers to focus on writing clear, efficient code without worrying extensively about optimizing performance.
Caution above all
“There’s been a real concerted effort to keep the language relevant and fresh,” says Simon Ritter, deputy chief technology officer at Azul Systems. Ritter worked for Sun Microsystems for 14 years, starting just a year after Java’s unveiling to the world, and then moved to Oracle for a further five years following its purchase of Sun in 2010.
He points specifically to landmark updates like JDK 8, which introduced Lambda expressions and stream processing in 2014. These features significantly expanded Java’s appeal by allowing developers to write more functional and concise code, keeping pace with newer programming paradigms and developer demands.
Java’s structured, feedback-driven evolution is another reason behind its cautious yet progressive growth.
Subramaniam highlights Java’s agile development approach: “Features were introduced as pre-release before they were committed to final release. This gives confidence to both developers and organizations that they are working with the language and a platform that is relevant.”
Java also isn’t precious about putting Java first. “The developers behind the Java ecosystem genuinely cared about not just Java the language, but other languages,” says Subramaniam. “They introduced features into the bytecode to actually support these languages.”
One of the architects of Java, James Gosling, famously described it as a blue-collar programming language, “one that was all about getting the job done,” Ritter says. “That approach was very appealing.”
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Looking to the future
If the last 30 years have seen significant changes in how software development takes place, the next 30 years seem poised to undergo even more transformation.
Ahmed believes Java is well-placed to endure. “Java’s long-term relevance will hinge on how effectively it adapts to the asks of AI, cloud, and edge computing in 2025 and beyond,” he says.
Initiatives like Project Panama, which enables AI workloads to run more efficiently on hardware resources, and Project Loom, which helps to meet parallel processing needs at scale, are designed to future-proof Java.
Java also remains well-taught in computer science courses at university. “Students coming out of university with Java skills helps maintain its popularity,” says Ritter. With around 30% of software developers worldwide using Java, that talent pipeline remains robust.
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“If you ask me about 10 years, the answer is a definite yes,” Subramaniam says. “Java will continue to be strong. Beyond 10 years, it depends on what future business needs and technology innovations will be.”
Given Java’s proven adaptability and the community’s unwavering enthusiasm, it seems unlikely that even substantial technological shifts could significantly diminish its presence. After all, Java has already successfully navigated major industry transformations – from desktop applications through web and enterprise solutions, to cloud-native microservices.
“Java is kind of like my emotional home, because all the people I’ve met at conferences, all of the developers I speak to, all of the Java user groups, all of the people in the Java community are so accepting and wonderful and warm,” says Gee.
