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I think most professionals are conservative when it comes to their tools. Mastering them took a long time and it's hard to change.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. This is also why e.g. Java or Python isn't going anywhere anytime soon; they're fine, but there's armies of software developers who are well-versed in them. Newer languages may be "better" (by whatever measure), but experience trumps novelty.

Java is too embedded in massive applications to go away, it'll be the COBOL of 2080s.

But what I'm more interested in is that do companies with no prior Java baggage start greenfield Java projects in 2026? If 90% of your stack is Java and you start a new project, of course you pick it.

But would you do it just based on technical merits?

I would and I’m someone who like C and Common Lisp. The Java ecosystem is full of good solutions, especially for building a web platform. I rather use something reliable than something lean or cool.

I hate Java and would still choose it for all sorts of distributed systems work. It has fantastic tooling and is robust, performant and well understood.

CS6 was peak, everything we needed, nothing we didn't. That's pretty much what photopea is, with improvements, which supports this view.