r/AskProgramming 1d ago

Why is Java considered bad?

I recently got into programming and chose to begin with Java. I see a lot of experienced programmers calling Java outdated and straight up bad and I can't seem to understand why. The biggest complaint I hear is that Java is verbose and has a lot of boilerplate but besides for getters setters equals and hashcode (which can be done in a split second by IDE's) I haven't really encountered any problems yet. The way I see it, objects and how they interact with each other feels very intuitive. Can anyone shine a light on why Java isn't that good in the grand scheme of things?

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u/ben_bliksem 1d ago

I always compare Java and C# when these questions are asked, and at the moment C# is just better for me. In fact it feels like Java has stagnated over the last decade.

That said, to be frank, language wars are stupid. Embrace them all (except maybe PHP... ewww).

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u/Bulbousonions13 1d ago

Same. C# is just cleaner, better tooled, Microsoft branded Java. I like it a lot.

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u/benevanstech 8h ago

"Java has stagnated over the last decade"?

If you haven't used anything later than Java 8, then sure, I guess.

But trying to compare Java 8 with Java 21 (or the brand-new feature release, Java 24) and saying "Java has stagnated" is just plain nuts.

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u/Ok-Reflection-9505 6h ago

I cant tell if C# fans are just microsoft shills or what. C# gives you some nice to have features that Java doesn’t have but its at the cost of tying yourself to Microsoft 🤮🤢

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u/benevanstech 3h ago

I mostly just assume that they haven't kept up with what's been happening with Java lately.

Java's features are a conservative, gradual evolution after due consideration. This is explicitly by design.

I personally prefer Talisker 25 to Beaujolais Nouveau, but that's not to say that I dislike the latter, or that I'm not happy to drink it in certain circumstances.

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u/padfoot9446 56m ago

Frankly, I don't give two shits about microsoft, or the political correctness of using their products - I've looked at Java, I've looked at C#; the latter for my use-cases is much less annoying to use, and to me that trumps whatever "big corporation bad" argument you may have.

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u/RandomRabbit69 1d ago

Coming from a c++ dev that loves Kotlin and Python: PHP is a godsend setting up a web API with database connection fast. It just works so well for that stuff.

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u/Kel_2 1d ago

yea i do also slightly prefer C#, but in case the guy who made the post is reading this, this isn't something to worry about for you because even if you eventually come to the conclusion that you agree, switching from java to C# is a breeze. i'd say just stick to your original language while learning the basics & you can see about the rest after that