McNealy and Oracle luminaries reflect on the early days and staying power of the 30-year-old programming language and platform.
Languages such as Python and Rust get a lot of new attention these days, but Java is still going strong after three decades. With Java’s 30th birthday two months away, Scott McNealy, former CEO of Java founding company Sun Microsystems, and Oracle officials reflected on the programming language’s staying power at the JavaOne 2025 conference this week.
In a keynote presentation March 18 featuring many speakers, McNealy recalled the start of Java, precipitated by the hiring of Java founder James Gosling. McNealy recalled that Gosling wanted to build an integrated clicker, i.e., a TV set-top box, which needed a language and OS. The language became Java. “We never did ship a clicker,” said McNealy at the Redwood Shores, Calif., conference. Then, a meeting with Marc Andreessen of browser builder Netscape resulted in hundreds of thousands of Java downloads in the browser in the first few weeks; McNealy said this led to the birth of the Internet. “And Java is still top three [among languages] in the world 30 years later, and I think it’s number one for people who are doing real work, and doing enterprise,” McNealy said. Java will turn 30 years old on May 23.
Oracle officials also championed Java, whose stewardship the company took over in 2010 after acquiring Sun. “Today, the world truly runs on Java,” said Georges Saab, senior vice president of Java development at Oracle. Ninety-four of the Fortune 100 run Java, Saab said. He cited users including Uber, Netflix, and LinkedIn. Mark Reinhold, chief architect of the Java platform at Oracle, chimed in. “After three decades, Java remains one of the most popular programming platforms in the world,” he said, adding that Java is used by millions of developers to build mission-critical systems for organizations large and small.
Stewardship of the Java platform is guided by two key values: readability and compatibility, Reinhold said. “We will evolve the language but cautiously, with a long-term view,” he said.
