There is Apex, Salesforce's own language. It resembles Java, but is not Java. It is a proprietary language that powers custom apps written by 3rd party develope

There is Apex, Salesforce's own language. It resembles Java, but is not Java. It is a proprietary language that powers custom apps written by 3rd party developers to run as modules of Salesforce on Salesforce's servers. It is similar enough to Java that Salesforce has a page outlining the differences. https://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/apexcode/Content/apex_classes_java_diffs.htm https://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/apexcode/Conten... When viewed from that perspective, yes it can survive. If I am to write an AppExchange product that deeply integrates into Salesforce, I have no choice but to use Apex. Here is how much developers "love" Apex. ;) http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1664503/disadvantages-of-the-force-com-platform http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1664503/disadvantages-of-... Salesforce also made a REST API available, which lets me write code in other languages. That is nice because the #1 question I get from larger customers is "does it work with my Salesforce?". My integration is light enough that I can do it just through REST, for now at least. I am not looking forward to making a Visualforce module.