[ExpiredLink]

I have no doubt that you cannot win the 'war' on the language front. All those bloggers, internet and conference luminaries that never write real-world production code miss the point. It's about the platform, the whole programming ecosystem not about 'beautiful' syntax. That's why Java - the platform (Java EE, Android, ...), not the language - won and is still going strong. New languages (D, Rust, ...) have not the ghost of a chance unless they are able to create a platform.

[Apanatshka]

I agree. But don't forget that it took years of hard work to build up enough of "Java the platform". Things that help there is having traditional man-power, which costs money, and having a strong community, which takes lobbying/evangelising/advertising. In a way, all those "luminaries" you mention may or may not miss the point individually, but the buzz it creates is necessary to build the community that makes the platform, and that in turn makes the language succeed. Developers, developers, developers, developers, developers...