A lot of the Java jokes and criticisms make fun of the perceived poor quality of the JVM. For example, the JVM is used to cook a barbecue in this comic: https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/8res2s/no_problem/<p>However, criticism of the JVM seems to be forgotten in the context of JVM languages that are not Java. For example, I've never seen people make a joke about Scala's or Clojure's performance. Java seems to be very popular to bash, with the JVM being one aspect of its unpopularity, yet other languages that target the JVM receive positive attention and may even be trendy.<p>Why is this so? I know that people see Java as "uncool" or "corporate" due to its verbosity and emphasis on sometimes over-engineered object-oriented design. Other JVM languages may be better than Java in this regard. However, the JVM also tends to be cited in Java criticisms e.g. jokes, even though criticisms of it also affect "trendier" languages.<p>At the risk of saying an unpopular opinion, maybe the criticism of the JVM's performance is irrationally tied to an association with Java, an "uncool" language, and when a "trendier" language uses the JVM, people don't care, because they really dislike Java, not the JVM?<p>Or maybe people do criticize the JVM in the context of languages such as Scala, Clojure, and Kotlin, and I just haven't been paying attention?
Not sure about the speed criticism. Usually it’s memory usage by the JVM that’s a turn off. Out of the other languages you mentioned Clojure is for sure slower but if you’re working with that or another JVM language like Kotlin you’re so happy to not be writing Java you don’t care about the other issues. I often say I wish I learned Java first so I did not know any better. It’s generally pretty unpleasant compared to most other languages I’m used to.
Slow is relative. Java was originally an alternative to C++, which is much closer to the metal and can be significantly faster than the JVM allows.<p>If you're deciding to use Clojure or Kotlin, the alternatives you're considering are probably Java and Scala, or maybe even a web-friendly scripting language - not C or C++.