For a long time, software written in Java was often painfully slow. Swing apps were particularly bad. This did leave a very negative impression on all sorts of people, from developers to managers to executives to the end users who had to use these applications written in Java.
Thanks to hardware, JVM and Java class library advances, it isn't as much of a problem as it once was. But there are still many people out there, especially in the corporate and small business world, who are forced to use Java apps on desktops that are a decade old, if not older in some cases. These systems often weren't very powerful to begin with, and due to budgetary constraints they may not be able to upgrade them. It's not a pleasant situation to be in.
So while Java may appear fast enough on a powerful server, or a modern development workstation, this isn't an experience that everyone using Java applications gets to share in. When people suggest that Java is "slow", I don't think it's appropriate to discount what they're saying. It very well could be an accurate description of their situation and experience.
For a long time, software written in Java was often painfully slow. Swing apps were particularly bad. This did leave a very negative impression on all sorts of people, from developers to managers to executives to the end users who had to use these applications written in Java.
Thanks to hardware, JVM and Java class library advances, it isn't as much of a problem as it once was. But there are still many people out there, especially in the corporate and small business world, who are forced to use Java apps on desktops that are a decade old, if not older in some cases. These systems often weren't very powerful to begin with, and due to budgetary constraints they may not be able to upgrade them. It's not a pleasant situation to be in.
So while Java may appear fast enough on a powerful server, or a modern development workstation, this isn't an experience that everyone using Java applications gets to share in. When people suggest that Java is "slow", I don't think it's appropriate to discount what they're saying. It very well could be an accurate description of their situation and experience.