For me, as an outsider, the JVM looks a bit like .NET: this huge, extremely complex codebase which does everything and anything, very optimized and comes with great tools.
But to me that is a problem. Even though the JVM could do X or Y better than another platform, just the time spent learning about it feels like a waste of time, as I could already be productive in another language which is less optimized and less complex, but much faster to develop with. It seems just learning to use a Java IDE is a job in itself.
I do mathematical modeling, by the way. If I need speed, I use optimised libraries. So I might not be the target user of Java, although I've often heard good things about it for scientific computing.
But to me that is a problem. Even though the JVM could do X or Y better than another platform, just the time spent learning about it feels like a waste of time, as I could already be productive in another language which is less optimized and less complex, but much faster to develop with. It seems just learning to use a Java IDE is a job in itself.
I do mathematical modeling, by the way. If I need speed, I use optimised libraries. So I might not be the target user of Java, although I've often heard good things about it for scientific computing.