The most important thing is tooling. Java has got everything checkboxed for use in Corporate Environments. You want FIPS compliant crypto? You want static code analysis? You want tools to scan usage of open source libraries? You want tool to see if your developer copy pasted code from stack overflow? Everything is a Check Yes in Java, that too most of these tools are free and reputable. The Apache and OWASP foundations literally keep Java alive. The only problematic thing is their new EOL policy for Java SE. They have effectively killed the usage of the "free" Java SE in environments with the new EOL policy. To put it simply, one will need to constantly update to the latest major version http://www.oracle.com/technetw...

In addition, what many people aren't getting is that the last few years have been weird for many of these companies. The US Dollar is strengthening and at the same time their revenues are increasingly coming from non-US geographies. This combined effect makes their US dollar based profit numbers look very poor. You cannot sell into markets in falling currency and spend for development in a region with strengthening currency. The US is in a weird position. Consumers benefit from a strong dollar, while jobs will suffer.

Not all compiler bugs cause a crash. A crash on the line is the ideal bug. I had to deal with a getc()/ungetc() bug that caused a wrong character to get inserted into the file stream. I spent days "printf-ing" the file parsing code. Once I found the bug, I was able to demonstrate it to the compiler guys in a 30 line program. That looked so easy to colleagues and the compiler guys after the fact.

brought Snake to millions of people.
built phones that could take on a tank. That didn't need to be upgraded every two years.
became the largest phone manufacturer in the world.
became the largest camera manufacturer in the world.
only to fall prey to a trojan horse called Stephen Elop.

Amen!

Was using the same reliable phone, until I finally changed to an Android. Sigh. Had to wait till Moto G came along to find something that was at-least half as good as my faithful Nokia 5230.

This link will clarify your doubt. This is a very respectable Indian magazines (India Today) 1993 article: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/us-blocks-critical-cryogenic-deal-forces-india-to-indigenise/1/302683.html Quote from article:

Windows _just_ works. I began using Linux Mint a few months ago for learning. And I find it harder and harder to find latest software packaged for it, they all expect me to be on the latest release. With a release every 6 moths, that is not very good at upgrading, I think a lot of people would like to be on Windows. Where XP users (10+ yr old OS) are happily installing 99.99% of all available software in the latest versions without a hitch. Of course, I am on Win 8 with ClassShell start menu. That is the max customization I need. AND nothing has broken due to me installing the start menu, and I know nothing will. Windows has one of the BEST backward/forward compatibilities I have every seen for any OS. (Seen Solaris, Linux (RHEL/Ubuntu) and Windows of-course). Any decently written software from 15 yrs ago will still install and run. Without requiring a exponentially increasing, cascading list of dependencies. On linux, if you are not on the latest version of the OS and are installing the latest version of the software, they will require specific versions of components where you have a newer version of the same and installing both simultaneously requires being a IT equivalent of a Gymnast.

Are you confusing HP with Apple?

HP's doomed Itanium was _ahead_ in the 64 bit race. It was one of the first 64 bit processors that gained reasonable market share.
The true reason for its demise is the lack of backwards compatibility. They decided to fix everything in one go: 64 bit, increased execution parallelism without programmer effort etc.
Years later AMD came up with x64 that was compatible with x32 and Intel quickly hoped on board as it saw the marked liked backward compatibility.

I have seen the Itaniums, if the program was slightly optimized, it would beat the daylights out of other architectures in terms of performance. Too bad that didn't count.

This is fine. Sometimes holding back on an update means that Administrators can plan for an update and be prepared to install it as soon as it is disclosed. Unlike OSS that just plonks it out. You cannot plan for their releases.

This is +1

The standards for *THE* leading IT company are always higher. Et tu, Brute? => His standard was set higher by Caesar :)

It is true. 7 days for 95% companies is unrealistic. If you make big enterprise software to be sold to big vendors (SAP?), the clauses are simple: Any regression bug that is noticed and someone screams too loud => heads roll. So they have test-cycles that take weeks, for anything, however small the change is. The problem is not with the development companies, the problem is with the user-companies. They buy software with a 90's mindset. Which software today doesn't have bugs, security bugs, and regression bugs (something used to work, no longer works)? As long as the vendor is agreeing to quickly fix the regressions and the regressions are not data eating, they you should be okay.

The problem re-appears. The fix is temporary. There is no problem with _other_ software. Basically someone wrote iTunes assuming no other software is running on the system and it locks up resources.