From a perspective of an assembler, C, shell, and AWK programmer, Java has never been, nor will it ever be ready for anything. We use it at work (we run thousands of Java applications, written externally and in house), and it is a total piece of shit: 300 GB of RAM consumption on the average(!!!), CPU intensive, slow, not backwards compatible (try changing the Java runtime environment under an application and see how well that works for you). From my experience and point of view, Java is overcomplicated and unintuitive, even for the simplest of tasks. Furthermore, I deeply regret that Java was one of my core computer science courses at the university (way back when Java was all the rage). Personally, I would rather drop dead than use Java, and if they tried to force me to write code in it again, I would quit on the spot!<p>If I had it my way, Java would be a criminal offense carrying a minimum prison sentence of at least 20 years, and if I ever have my own company and I catch someone using Java, I will fire them on the spot with so much gusto! It will be so awesome.