Typesafe survey

Typesafe’s latest survey on Java 8 explains the success of lambdas and what it means for Scala.

Half a year after its release, Java 8 is showing signs of fast and enthusiastic adoption, according to Typesafe’s latest survey on Java 8. The newest generation of the programming platform would appear not to be suffering the same slow rate of adoption as its predecessors.

The success of the lambda

According to the survey, just over half (51%) of Java 8 users are already exploring the possibilities of this release’s most significant new feature: lambdas

27% of IT teams have already upgraded to Java 8, with another 21% planning to switch within the next 6 months. Only 3% have decided completely against upgrading to Java 8. Overall, eagerness to move is higher than expected, as Typesafe concludes.

“The latest findings suggest that adoption of Java 8 is running six months ahead of predictions, with two-thirds of those polled now saying they were running Java 8 or had committed to switching within a year.”

The main reasons given by programmers for postponing the update to Java 8 are organizational obstacles and red tape (19%), hurdles with legacy infrastructure (37%) and a lack of resources (31%). Of Java developers not yet on Java 8, 95% are using the previous two versions – Java 77 (69%) and Java 6 (26%).

Oracle’s late CEO Larry Ellison can also rejoice in the fact that Oracle’s virtual machine is still the JVM of choice.

Oracle: 96% Dalvik / Android: 20% IBM: 7% Azul: 1%

Similarly, Oracle’s JDK leads the pack.

Oracle Java SDK: 92% OpenJDK: 40% IBM JDK: 5%

Java 8 lambdas have not hurt Scala

Interestingly, the majority of developers believe the introduction of lambdas was not bad news for Scala. During the release of Java 8, it was often discussed whether or not the introduction of lambdas would make Scala obsolete, or at best, slow its adoption rate. In hindsight, the majority of Java developers agree that Java 8’s theft of Scala’s has far from damaged Scala.

In fact, 60% of participants believed that Oracle’s implementation of lambda expressions are a validation of Scala’s language design that will “positively reinforce the adoption of Scala.” Not only that, but 68% of Java programmers said that their experience with lambdas in Java 8 made them more likely to try out other functional languages with lambda features.

Java 9 excitement building

Consistent with JAXenter’s enthusiastic response to Java 9 news stories, more than a quarter of Java 8 users describe themselves as having a ‘strong’ interest in Java 9. However, the main focus of excitement is on a feature which is not (yet) earmarked for Java 9 – to the regret of many Java developers.

Open source a winner in application servers

The divide between open-source and proprietary software is nowhere more clear than in the survey of Java application servers. Open-source servers Tomcat and Jetty are the most popular, while heavier J2EE web servers like WebSphere and WebLogic are left trailing behind.