I'm so glad I was taught Java at Macquarie University back in 1998. For the past 20 years I've had a career built on a solid API that doesn't change every 2 years like some flavour-of-the-month Javascript framework.
Even on the client where Java has lost to Javascript, I'm finding it more enjoyable to add features to my 15-year-old SWT app [0] rather than dealing with the multiple layers of abstractions that is Javascript+CSS+DOM (+ maybe Electron).
Personally I think it's a shame Sun dropped the ball with client Java - if they had chosen SWT over Swing and provided a minimal JVM then maybe Java Web Start would have beaten Javascript web apps. It's also a shame Sun sold Java to Oracle - Google would have been a better steward, and probably would have been willing to pay more for the Java parts of Sun.
I'm now trying Dart to develop a few Flutter apps. It's no doubt a better language, but not that much better - I think Flutter would have been more successful if it was built on Java.
Even on the client where Java has lost to Javascript, I'm finding it more enjoyable to add features to my 15-year-old SWT app [0] rather than dealing with the multiple layers of abstractions that is Javascript+CSS+DOM (+ maybe Electron). Personally I think it's a shame Sun dropped the ball with client Java - if they had chosen SWT over Swing and provided a minimal JVM then maybe Java Web Start would have beaten Javascript web apps. It's also a shame Sun sold Java to Oracle - Google would have been a better steward, and probably would have been willing to pay more for the Java parts of Sun.
I'm now trying Dart to develop a few Flutter apps. It's no doubt a better language, but not that much better - I think Flutter would have been more successful if it was built on Java.
[0] https://www.solaraccounts.co.uk