Sun Microsystems was the leader in the enterprise server market in the late '90s (cue the hokey "the dot in dot-com" ads) but the other server/workstation vendo

Sun Microsystems was the leader in the enterprise server market in the late '90s (cue the hokey "the dot in dot-com" ads) but the other server/workstation vendors and Microsoft were hot on their heels. Java caught on quickly because they put an enormous amount of money, effort and evangelism into driving Java everywhere in hopes of creating a new ecosystem under their control to serve as a moat, succeeding primarily in enterprise markets where they wielded an enormous amount of clout. That plus its own merits were enough to overcome its significant demerits, mainly speed and, for lack of a better word, grottiness. Over time, it evolved into a passable language, the one you see today.