[rat87]

Java isn't a horrible language it's a somewhat mediocre language.

It's a lowest common denominator.

It has a couple of very good free cross-platform ide's.

It's write once -run everywhere to a certain extent. While java gui's may be a bit ugly they let you run self contained apps with no dependencies except for the jvm(installed on more the 1/2 of all pcs).

The vm (at least the main sun/oracle hotspot / openjdk) has a world class jit and gc.