Counterpoints: 1) Javascript is the slowest moving language standard since Common Lisp 2) Node.js is a cool project that is heading very gradually towards ado

Counterpoints: 1) Javascript is the slowest moving language standard since Common Lisp 2) Node.js is a cool project that is heading very gradually towards adoptability for projects that aren't tech demos 3) JVM is mature enough to support other languages - can't say that about V8 and probably not for some time. JVM languages moving fast and in good/interesting directions. 4) Android 5) JVM startup time not an issue for web services, games, etc - only one-off shell scripts. 6) Memory use. Unless you're running on a mobile platform - who cares? Projects like Node.js will have a bright future with small agile teams. But no more so than Clojure or Scala. And unlike Node.js, I think Clojure and Scala certainly have the ability to scale up to heavy-lifting tasks that require concurrency, real perf, and mature libraries. I love JS in the browser. But on the server, I have yet to see anything that convinces me that JavaScript will ever really trump what the JVM offers.