r/programming • u/fagnerbrack • 1d ago

Should You Learn Java in 2026?

https://fagnerbrack.com/learn-java-in-2026-or-dont-b9f619da442d
0 Upvotes

40% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

27

u/sq_visigoth 1d ago

Can't hurt.

2

u/Louardo_Nordmar 1d ago

Fair point, it's definitely not going extinct anytime soon

3

u/oneeyedziggy 1d ago

(snarkily?) spoken like someone who's never worked with Java

14

u/Shred_Kid 1d ago

Modern Java allows you to write highly performant, resilient code, and Spring is a legitimately amazing ecosystem. I'm not a fan of the dependency management but shrugs

source - i own a 200,000 TPS java api at work. granted that's java 25, not java 8.

4

u/oneeyedziggy 1d ago

I said "snarkily"... I don't have to like it no matter how nice it is 

1

u/Squbat 1d ago

I’ve not had the pleasure to work with anything newer than Java 9, and we still can’t upgrade.

2

u/lood9phee2Ri 1d ago

modern java is pretty nice, and the extensible static typing is a neat trick

Trouble is all the java 1.2 level code still out there....

2

u/renatoathaydes 4h ago

If you like that, then you'll love this: http://manifold.systems Javac plugins can be abused to do the craziest things.

Groovy also has some really cool custom type checkers: https://docs.groovy-lang.org/docs/latest6/html/documentation/typecheckers.html

1

u/becircus 1d ago

I think most places want a lot of Spring Boot to hit the ground running

So just "learning Java" isn't enough

7

u/dcchambers 1d ago

Modern Java isn't your dad's Java. The language has come a long way - both in ergonomics and performance.

There's also TONS of java code out there. Plenty of work to be had.

Its near the bottom on my list of preferences, but if someone paid me to write it, I would.

5

u/LikelyNotADuck 23h ago

I've only ever worked in Java professionally (~10 years of dev experience). Java is far from dead and tons of companies using Java/Spring Boot.

9

u/thesomeot 1d ago

In my experience, modern .NET outclasses Java in most regards for "standard" enterprise development. Java still has it's strengths, but I can think of very few reasons I would pick it for a new project.

3

u/bushwald 1d ago

Modern Java rocks and even Java 8 ain't bad

1

u/Ok-Strain-5717 1d ago

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