Let’s focus on Java. After all, that is what this site is about.
I’m not a Java religious. I just like Java because I know it and because I use it and it fits my need. More, I like the open source principles and thinking that are so common in the Java community. For zero cost you can set up your own project with good development and deploy tools.
Java 5 was a great improvement but will Java 6 / 7 also give us somethings useful? Maybe not so much Java 6 but 7 will be great to see. And what about those closures?
Enterprise Java has both pros and cons. The big picture and the problems it addresses and solved are good but many lightweight frameworks / languages clearly states that so many things can be easier. But on the other hand, JEE is not made for smallscale projects and in large project you can take a bigger initial cost setting of configuration. On the other hand, you can make a few Groovy and Grails hooks and maybe you are up and running in no time? And further, these days maven2 brings you powerful archetypes really give you the J2EE-project kickstart that you need.
