The reputation for slowness comes from the warm-up time. There is always a very noticeable delay starting even a simple java app; whereas a native binary is rel

The reputation for slowness comes from the warm-up time. There is always a very noticeable delay starting even a simple java app; whereas a native binary is relatively instantaneous. There are tricks to alleviate this issue in java (e.g. you can keep a JVM running in the background using tool like nailgun) but the default vanilla java behaviour is what most people will be familiar with.