[MaxBarraclough]

True, but in the same way that a 747 is terrible for delivering pizza.

You may be right that Java doesn't scale down well, but that's not normally the sort of work it's intended for. (Let's ignore the applets mistake.) It's a terrible solution for scripting, yes, but for heavyweight server roles I'd be surprised to see it significantly outperformed by .Net, and there's really no way Lua or Python would be able to compete.

OpenJDK has a very impressive (and heavyweight) JIT, for instance, and very impressive GCs of almost no use for short-lived applications.

With all that said, it'd be great if OpenJDK's new developments mature to the point that Java can become practical for 'lightweight work'.