Being jobless with a degree in comp-sci (C++ trained), I decided to teach myself Java (the proper way) and also pass the SCJP-6.
In the last 3 weeks I have read HeadFirst Java, SCJP-5 w/ Paul Sanghara, and of course SCJP w/Sierra & Bates (half-way through reading for 2nd time).
Now I'm seeing online how Java is dying a slow death. (Sure, if you have 5+ yrs in development experience there are jobs you can jump into. But, it seems like Java has become "legacy"...thus only "old hats" are wanted.)
The more I understand Java the more I like how it all makes sense to me, but I am too new to see its shortcomings against .NET or PHP, Ruby or whatever? Is the tide moving ever-so-slow away from Java front-end (followed by back-end) development?
Are .NET, Ruby, Ajax, and PHP taking over (.NET especially)? I read it has something to do with a decision the Sun engineers made a while ago with how Java relates to server side?
Anyway, am I over reacting? Am I full of it? Am I miss-informed? Oh ya, also, I'm pretty much stuck in tech backwater Milwaukee, WI. And I'm getting sick of seeing job postings looking like this: Preferred candidate will have experience with C#, VB.NET, ASP, PHP, Perl, Python, C, C++, COBOL, Ajax, J2EE, Servlets, Oracle, plSQL, MySQL, JSP, XML, DB2, Sybase, AIX, Unix,....OK, I may have gotten carried away, but please understand my frustration.
I read how IBM wanted to buy Sun (nixed). Was their intent to chop it up and cast it off to the outsourcing world? From the sheer number of Indian names on this section of the forum, Java does seem to have gone that way already! Even if Java's future is stable, do I need move to Chenai for a job? Has Java development (in the eyes of U.S. companies) been commoditized?
Have I wasted this precious last month not learning C#, ASP, .NET...? Of course being well rounded is nice....if you know you're going to live to be 180 years old. The programming landscape is way too broad to be a jack-of-all-trades anymore....and I threw my lot in with Java....please tell me I didn't screw up. It's too hard to study something this intense if I'm having doubts about it.
I'll drink the Java Kool-Aid by the gallon if someone can tell me it has a promising future and is not just clinging to the glory days of 1999.
Thanks for reading my rant.