[microtonal]

Probably because of memory usage and garbage collection and the fact that java needs to be installed on most systems whereas C++ needs no dependencies

Well, GCC (as in the compiler collection) has had a ahead-of-time compiler for ages:

http://gcc.gnu.org/java/

There is also work in the LLVM camp on AOT Java compilation:

http://vmkit.llvm.org/

Atleast i wouldn't sleep well if i know that the heart of the internet was running Java :P

Well lucky you, only many other vital body parts are running on the JVM via Java, JRuby, and increasingly Scala ;).

[fdr_cs]

Those implementations have quite weak garbage collection implementations (boehm conservative, but I'm not sure), which would just kill the performance. Hotspot JVM has a very sofisticated Incremental Generational garbage collector, which does have a _very_ good performance. I'm pretty sure they had their reasons for not using Java (I actually do have mine too), but, garbage collection is not one of those.

[microtonal]

Indeed. I was arguing against the 'you need the JVM as a dependency'. But then Go is all the hype these days, and people also use Go for network applications, which also has a weak GC ;).

[fdr_cs]

Go does generate a _LOT_ less garbage then Java, you can control the layout of your structures. That why its gc has less impact on performance then the JVM´s one.

[pjmlp]

There are many more commercial AOT solutions for Java

- IBM J9

- Aonix PERC

- Oracle Squawk VM

- Oracle Embedded Java

- Excelsior JET

- Avian

- RoboVM

- ...

[zeckalpha]

What parts are running on the JVM that are as vital as BIND?

[buster]

Which ones? I'd say DNS is probably the most important parts. I also don't believe that core routing equipment is running in the JVM.

Apparently you are talking about the "Web", i was talking about the internet or networks in general.. I'm aware that tomcat may have a very large installation base. There is no use for your tomcat if the DNS is down, though :P

[pjmlp]

What about missile radar systems?

http://www.militaryaerospace.com/articles/2009/03/thales-cho...

[cgh]

Very cool, but not really related to core internet functionality.

The truth is, Java is viewed as "not Unix friendly" by many people, whether deserved or not. I suspect the ISC folks fall squarely into this camp. My personal and thus purely anecdotal experience is near-universal hostility from network admins.

Despite this, there is a fair amount of network management software written in Java. OpenNMS and Cisco Prime Networks (an absolute beast) both spring to mind.

[pjmlp]

Yeah, cultural issues are very hard to fight and usually require a generation change.

I convinced unless a big OS vendor forces changes for their default system programming language, nothing will change.

This is why I like Microsoft's decision to drop C on Windows.

What I would like is to have a proper systems programming language in the lines of Modula-3/Active Oberon/C#/D/Rust or similar, being used.

Time will tell when this happens, but it will require a few generations of developers for the mentality change to take place.

[army]

Neither is a particularly viable option: GCJ is nearly a decade behind mainline Java in terms of feature support. VMKit seems cool but I'm not sure about the maturity of the project.