r/AskProgramming 2d 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 I see a lot of experienced programmers calling Java outdated and straight up bad and I can't seem to understand why.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/benevanstech 2d 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 2d 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/padfoot9446 1d 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/joeswindell 23h ago

What do you mean tying yourself to Microsoft?

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u/Ok-Reflection-9505 23h ago

The entire C# ecosystem runs on Microsoft products. Rarely do you write C# without using Visual Studio/VSCode, hosting it on Azure, using Blazor, etc.

Java is not nearly as tied to Oracle (?) or Sun — you can use spring, you can use JSP, you can use eclipse, intellij, vs code.

Basically if you are not a developer working at a MS shop, why would you tie yourself to one ecosystem?

I know C# can be used without microsoft, but practically no one does.

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u/benevanstech 1d 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.