[clug] Why isn't Java popular on the Linux Desktop? [SEC=PERSONAL]

[David Lloyd]

<big snip>

In the bad old days, Java applications didn't look like a native
application, had rather poor performance in comparison to native
applications and required a rather large download if a JVM was
installed. 

It really is as simple as that and I don't think has anything to do
with garbage collection or any current implementations of the JVM
specification. Its first impression wasn't good and it's really as
simple as that.

(On a side note I think that the CLR from Microsoft would have suffered
the same fate excepting Microsoft managed to keep the Windows
implementation of the GUI looking like Windows and modern machines are
fast enough to ignore the resources a virtual machine *does* use)

DSL