Java misconceptions (Score 5)

This is slightly offtopic, but there are lots of Java misconceptions by people who either haven't worked with it, or who have played with it for a day or two without really understanding what it's all about. I see a few mentioned here in user comments:

Common Java misconceptions

• Java is slow - for most apps (client AND server-side), Java is pretty damn fast. I've seen lots of cases where developers were so much more productive in Java than C++ so that they were able to write sophisticated caching algorithms to speed things up much faster than they could have done in other languages. Early implementations of applet classloaders (Netscape, Microsoft) were pretty dumb and hit the network for every class (yuk) but there are better ways to do that nowadays. JITs and HotSpot bring raw Java to C/C++ speed. Period.
• Linux and Java don't mix - this is bs. I've been developing on Java/Linux for years now, and while there have been quirks and generally things take longer to get ported, it runs just fine. Once we started getting the IBM VM on Linux things really picked up, and now Linux is pretty close in terms of getting the newer APIs near when they come out (look at JDK1.3 and JMF performance pack as examples)
• Java must be opensourced - I'm going to get crucified for this, but I like Sun having control over Java. The source code is there, so I can always look at the library and VM code whenever I want. Sure, there are a number of bugs that have been outstanding for a bit too long, but I think Sun is getting better at fixing the more annoying ones. Sun has been pretty good at coming out with timely enhancements and I don't want that process slowed down to the point of being Mozilla-esqe (years to release a product).
• crossplatform doesn't work - this misconception is brought to you by the same people who generally claim Java is slow--people who loaded one or two applets and think that represents what Java is all about. Sure, browsers had (and still have I'm sure, though I don't code applets nowadays) major issues with GUI events and widget painting, but Swing helps out here quite a bit and I believe browsers are at least a little better. In any case, GUI apps and server-side apps are great cross-platform. I have a number of both that I regularly write under Linux and run under NT/Solaris, and my cross-platform issues are very, very, very few.

...and too many other misconceptions to mention.