[Teckla]

Java had a lot of "big things" going for it:

1. Write Once, Run Anywhere

2. GUI in the standard library

3. Way less complex than hyper-complex C++

4. Garbage collection

5. Memory safety

6. Applets that ran in the web browser

7. Comprehensive standard library

8. Free compiler and JVM for all major (at the time) operating systems

Some of these things have ultimately not worked out, but at the time, all of the aforementioned features helped propel Java to huge success.