[microtonal]

Indeed. Disdain toward Java is strange, given Go's popularity and its similarity to earlier Java versions.

Sure, the JVM has long startup time (why should we care for most applications?) and gc/gcc-go produces nice binaries. But the Java ecosystem has many attractions as well: a common runtime for different programming languages, a wealth of high-quality libraries, a mature GC, great package management (via Maven or sbt), good IDEs, hotswap, instrumentation, etc.

Most of Go's advantages (lightweight threads, channels, good compile times) are also available in Java and the JVM.

IMHO it would've been more interesting if Google had pushed Java AOT compilation forward instead. But I guess the point of 20% time is that people can do what the heck they want. Perhaps RoboVM will push the envelope instead ;).

I wonder if they disapproval of the JVM is mostly shaped by slow and ugly AWT/Swing applications and huge frameworks that require lots of XML configuration. (Swing an be pretty, see IntelliJ. I try to avoid frameworks ;).)

[threeseed]

Have to agree that the JVM's long startup time is pretty overblown. It is a fraction of the total startup time of a typical app and there are quite a few caching solutions e.g Drip already.

And IMHO one technology is responsible for much of the hatred towards Java and that is Spring.

[RyanZAG]

I think Google's disapproval of the JVM is shaped by Oracle's lawsuits and is purely political, as they were extremely in favour of the JVM before those occurred.

[anon1385]

That's probably true, but some of the Go creators (Pike for example) have been saying very negative things abut Java since long before the Oracle lawsuits. Often in fairly trollish ways.