Java increasingly threatened by new app dev frameworks

Scripting languages and new application development frameworks are doing work Java once shouldered in its prime..

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By Paul Krill
February 21, 2008

Is Java slipping into second-tier status in the application development space? All the attention being given to its rivals these days might give off that impression.

Nearly 13 years old, the Java language and platform created at Sun Microsystems now shares the software development limelight with scripting languages such as PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) and Ruby, as well as with Microsoft's .Net technologies.

Much touted for its ability to run on multiple platforms via the JVM (Java Virtual Machine), Java grabbed headlines for years before being seriously challenged by .Net and open source scripting variants. Today, these alternatives to Java have gained plenty of adherents. Open source CRM vendor SugarCRM, for example, chose to write its application in PHP instead of Java. "When we set out, we thought we were going to build a Java application on top of Oracle," said Clint Oram, SugarCRM co-founder. The company, however, saw PHP maturing and found it "just more accessible than Java, for the average person," Oram said.

Microsoft, meanwhile, has made its .Net platform a serious player in the enterprise space. A November 2007 report by Info-Tech Research Group stated the case for .Net becoming more popular than the Java platform in enterprises.