Java (the language and the platform) is my #1 choice for almost everything I do. I can see why people wouldn't choose it though... for better or for worse. Th

Java (the language and the platform) is my #1 choice for almost everything I do. I can see why people wouldn't choose it though... for better or for worse. There are not a lot of technical reasons, except perhaps than in "the cloud" using more RAM in a VM has a not insignificant cost, and Java-ish applications tend to have significant memory overhead. Most of the downsides seem non-technical - perhaps mostly than it is just not "the new hotness". Also, in the 2000's Java went through the wringer of being used everywhere in "enterprise", and admittedly there were some ugly growing pains where you ended up writing XML configuration files that could be longer than your actual source code (Spring Framework and Hibernate were serious offenders, and "everyone" used those). During that time RoR started to become popular and provided a more pleasant alternative... then some of the Ruby community started writing hit pieces about the JVM platform which did a lot of damage to Java's "coolness" from which I don't think it ever really recovered. Fast forward to today, and Java/JVM is battle tested and actually much easier and pleasant to use, but compared to "the new hotness" it is quite mature... and like grandparents, even though there is a lot of wisdom baked in there, it is not something that the "cool kids" want to hang out with.