30 Years of Java – Interview with Community Representatives (Part 5)
Java turned 30 in 2025. That's a good time to look back, but also forward.
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- Falk Sippach
Over the past 30 years, a vibrant community has formed around Java. I interviewed some German-speaking representatives about their experiences. The response was overwhelming. Many thanks to everyone who participated. In this fifth and final part, Sandra Warmbrunn (Co-organizer JUG Ostfalen), Michael Paus (Board member JUG Stuttgart and organizer of Java Forum Stuttgart), Stefan Hildebrandt (Co-organizer JUG Bremen/Oldenburg), Thomas Ruhroth (Co-organizer JavaLand4Kids), and Gerrit Meier (Co-organizer JUG Ostfalen) have their say.
Java has shaped many developers since their first steps in IT – and has experienced its ups, downs, and several reinventions during this time. The following answers reflect personal beginnings, formative experiences, critical moments, and an assessment of Java's role in today's software development. Finally, they take a look ahead: with tips for personal development and expectations for Java in the coming years.
When and with which version did you first come into contact with Java?
Sandra Warmbrunn: I first came into contact with Java 1.1 during my studies in 1998.
Michael Paus: It must have been around 1997 with Java 1.1 or possibly even 1.0.
Stefan Hildebrandt: Towards the end of my school days, in 1997, I took my first steps with Linux and wanted to continue programming desktop applications there. By chance, I came across a Java book, and I liked the approach of running applications on both Linux and Windows, even though there were one or two hurdles.
Thomas Ruhroth: I encountered Java during my training as a mathematical-technical assistant. I had just learned Smalltalk (yes, that's an OO programming language), and the topic came up that Java was also OO and faster. That was version Java 1.1. Well, Java wasn't that fast, but among runtime languages, it was the fastest.
Gerrit Meier: That's a very good introductory question. I actually had to look up my old university notes from 2003 with javap. Although the tool indicates 1.2 for the first exercises, I would officially state that it was probably version 1.4 that accompanied me most of the time at university. So, I came to Java more out of obligation than by finding it. However, by the end of my studies, it was already an integral part of tools (visualization) for my diploma thesis, which was C++ at its core.
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From March 10 to 12, 2026, the JavaLand conference will take place. This year, the community conference is moving to Germany's largest theme park, Europa-Park Rust. The program offers nearly 130 talks in 13 subject areas.
Looking back, what was your best experience with the Java language or ecosystem?
Sandra Warmbrunn: Looking back, since it's been so many years, I can't say exactly which was my best experience. There are a few that I found great. Passing my exam to become a Certified Java Programmer 1.5 was very nice. Also, the ability to use other programming languages on the JVM. Groovy helped me learn functional programming techniques.
Michael Paus: My best experience was when, after years of working with Java in a rather small scope, I finally got to join Airbus in a very interesting and large Java project with JavaFX.
Stefan Hildebrandt: The power of the ecosystem, which became apparent during several migrations from other platforms to Java: Despite all the naysayers, the systems were significantly more powerful afterward, thanks to the JVM and optimized components like connection pools.
Thomas Ruhroth: I was very pleased with Streams and Lambdas. They enabled nice things that I knew from other languages. The last nice thing was ArchUnit a few years ago. It now provides a readable, easy-to-use extension for ensuring architectural properties.
Gerrit Meier: There are several, and it's hard for me to pick out the best one. One of the first was a Poor Man's Remote Desktop at a client's out of necessity, and the first realization: You can do this with Java! After that, especially in the 2010s, features came thick and fast. Java 8, in particular, was, in my opinion, a very revitalizing release and ensured that Java felt modern again. Even though I hardly designed desktop UIs, I also really enjoyed the JavaFX phase and at least privately encouraged me to engage with it again. In the end, it was a somewhat shorter stint for JavaFX in the JDK than initially assumed, but I wouldn't consider it a failure. Especially starting with Java 8 and its rich feature set (and of course 9, 10, 11), core Java was featured more prominently in talks and learning, which brings me to the next point. Of course, if we broaden the ecosystem and see the technology as a common basis, then it's the people you meet – whether at a Java User Group, conferences, or at work – who give you the feeling that we can be very grateful for our community. Simply put: Without Java, my circle of friends over 30 probably wouldn't have grown so much.
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But not all that glitters is gold. What negatively influenced you, or what was an unpleasant moment in the Java environment?
Sandra Warmbrunn: The unpleasant moment was switching back from Groovy (nice clear syntax) to Java and all the boilerplate code (which is, of course, historically justified).
Michael Paus: This wasn't a single moment, but rather a continuous process. I found it very disappointing and frustrating how consistently the frontend topic has been and continues to be neglected in the Java environment. Many things were started but never properly thought through, let alone properly marketed and promoted.
Stefan Hildebrandt: The switch from JSF 1.x to 2 was only possible as a big bang if you wanted to maintain a uniform UI. This was very hindering and caused many applications to become technologically obsolete. After this debacle, updates in the Java Enterprise environment also became easier to handle over time.
Thomas Ruhroth: I regretted that the idea of Java processors didn't take off. There was once the idea of making Java bytecode directly executable on a special processor. During my training, this was one of the topics we believed would revolutionize the entire computer world and that there would soon be only Java processors.
Gerrit Meier: Disclaimer: I hope no individuals feel negatively addressed here. Especially during the aforementioned 2010s, Oracle caused a significant upheaval in the developer community (or just for me, if you didn't feel that way) regarding licensing, for example, Android, moving away from Java EE, and the general feeling that Java is more important to the company as a licensing basis than the technology itself. This brought a certain uncertainty about the future of the language for me. In the end, for me personally, it was probably the only unpleasant experience. On the other hand, for Java EE, for example, it was a necessary break. With its transfer to the Eclipse Foundation and broad corporate support (including Oracle), I believe it ended well in the end.
Do you believe Java is still relevant after 30 years? What role do you think Java plays in modern software development, especially compared to other languages and technologies?
Sandra Warmbrunn: I believe Java will continue to play a major role in software development; I don't know of any ecosystem with such a large community and so many tools, frameworks, and possibilities.
Michael Paus: Java still has great significance. The numbers and rankings in various metrics alone show this. Java is no longer a hype language but has more the character of a stable foundation on which large projects can be successfully built.
Stefan Hildebrandt: In the AI field, Python plays a larger role and is therefore used more strongly in the corporate environment. The detour via another area of application was already observed with JavaScript/TypeScript, which also landed on the server via SPAs. On the JVM, the trend towards Kotlin has somewhat subsided, even though Kotlin has established itself in many areas.
Thomas Ruhroth: Yes, I believe Java will have a long history. Languages that have many connections to open-source communities will not die quickly – there is so much love and work from many people in them.
Gerrit Meier: In “modern software development,” I would consider Java to be a given without any doubt. Especially through technologies like Spring as an alternative pioneer, which tirelessly keeps up with the state of the art, and Quarkus as a standard (JakartaEE) framework, we are almost spoiled for choice. And this applies from hobby projects to large enterprise deployments. I don't want to compare Java directly with other languages. Especially nowadays, there are quite a few similar concepts syntactically – let's exclude Haskell, Elixir, and friends, where meaningful innovations in one language relatively quickly spread to other languages. Of course, we should distinguish where the compiled program is executed. Java on a microcontroller might be a nice tinkering project, but we should give C/Rust precedence there if we're looking at signal processing. We should also never forget that the JVM is a beast that can and will do more and more. And perhaps one day we will run programming language X on it, and the J in JVM will be the only thing that reminds us of Java.
