Java At 30 Years Old: An Industry Perspective
DevOps.com, Friday, May 23rd, 2025
Java is 30. If that makes you feel old, cheer up.
Remember how groundbreaking and appealing the Java software language and platform has been over the years, think about how it has helped nurture a huge proportion of enterprise open source development (not to mention how it has essentially underpinned the web itself) and - if you're still feeling bad about all the years having flown past, remind yourself that Java might be 30, but Britney Spears is 43.
Software engineers respect Java for its longevity, its ability to maintain release momentum for so many years (a factor which has enabled it to retain a high level of relevance over the years), its modern features like lambdas (which appeared in Java 8), pattern matching, records and virtual threads (such as Project Loom). Users have (often unknowingly) enjoyed Java through their use of the web, the fact that they carry an Android phone in their pocket (Android was, of course, written in Java) and the enterprise-scale deployments of Java across finance and government that users remain oblivious to, yet dependent upon.