In March and April of 2022 we held an online survey to get some insights of the Java ecosystem. Our main regions of interest were Flanders and Brussels as these are the regions in which Continuum is currently active. Of course we also received responses coming from developers outside these regions. However, we can conclude that there were no differences between Flanders, Brussels and abroad.
In total we received almost 200 answers to our survey.
The male belgian thirtier...
Demography
In order to understand the results better, let's dive into some demographics of the respondents.
The largest group of respondents has some level of experience in life and in coding. Most people are in their thirties. They are - by far - the biggest contributors to this survey 😉
Most of our respondents are working for customers in Belgium. A small percentage is working for clients or companies abroad.
Discussions about gender have never been less important as at this moment. However, in order of completion we provide you with the information we received. How surprising: the majority of our respondents is male. However we are very, very happy with almost 10% of non-male respondents.
What keeps the java developer busy?
Just java or is there something else?
Which (max 3) programming languages have you used intensively during the 12 previous months?
It is not surprising that Java is the top answer for this question. It was a Java survey anyway. The survey reveals that most developers working with Java, also actively use SQL, Javascript and/or Typescript. Kotlin and Python are emerging. Seems that developers are more and more becoming polyglot developers. Probably the statement "use the language that is the best for the given project or environment", has something to do with that.
The polyglot developer profile is emphasized in the responses of the following question:Â
Which programming languages would you like to use or learn to use?
Almost 40% of the respondents would like to learn Kotlin or Python, followed by Go.Â
Kotlin will gain even more traction in the future as a lot of large companies are using it: Tiktok, Instagram... The combination of functional programming and object oriented programming is probably the most important added value to Java. JetBrains has put great effort into Kotlin-Java interoperability which greatly reduces the learning curve for most Java developers. Kotlin is based on much of the same principles as Java.
But most important: our respondents still want to learn new things. The life of a software developer is a never ending learning story....
Hey, where does the stuff need to be stored?
Which databases (max 3) have you been using intensively during the past 12 months?
The era of large Database providers such as Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server or IBM DB2 are not over yet. But some other database providers seem to become more mainstream. Results show however that PostgreSQL, MySQL and Elasticsearch have the upper hand. PostgreSQL brands itself as the "World's most advanced open source database" and it seems that most technology decision makers agree to that statement.Â
Elasticsearch is fast in storing, analyzing and querying huge amounts of data. As data is considered as the new gold, it is not surprising that such fast, lightweight databases are the new normal.
Is Oracle shrinking?Â
Which JDK have you been using the most in the last 12 months?
In our survey the Oracle OpenJDK is still the most popular choice for developers, but there is also an upcoming popularity of other implementations. Especially, the Amazon JDK will gain popularity as new AWS Cloud environments emerge. This is also confirmed by the "New Relic 2022 State of the Java Ecosystem." Probably the decision of Oracle to make the OracleJDK available under a paid license (however this was just temporary), made people consider other implementations. Or was it just the fact that the openJDK has pushed vendors to implement their own JDK?
They are still using that f*** old JDK on my project. What about yours?
Which Java versions have you been using the most during the last 12 months?
Java 11 is the new standard and is the most used LTS version at this moment running on the development environment of a Java developer. Java 17 popularity has yet to peak but merely 6 months after the release, Java 17 has a bigger market share than all antecedents of Java 11.
Which Java version is your production environment running on?
Java 11 is well established in production environments; java 11 is the most used version. Despite support for Java 7 coming to an end in 2022, its usage is pervasive. A small percentage of production environments are using this version. We sincerely hope these are legacy applications!?
Development environment and tooling
Which IDE/Tools are the most valuable in your development environment?
Our respondents are clearly a fan of the Jetbrains IDEA IntelliJ.
Which build platform(s) are you using?
Which application frameworks have you used in the last 12 months?
The Spring framework dominates the java ecosystem. But Java EE is still there with almost 30% of usages.Â
Which web frameworks (max 3) have you used the most in the last 12 months?
Angular and React are dominating the front-end ecosystems. Vue.js gets some traction, but still has a gap to close if it wants to become as popular as the other Web frameworks.Â
Which other frameworks have you been using intensively in the last 12 months and are of real added value to your work?
Which tools have you been using intensively (max 3) in the last 12 months and are a real added value for you?
Which Cloud Platform have you been using mainly in the last 12 months?
AWS is the clear winner when it comes to Cloud Platforms. Followed by Microsoft Azure.Â
Important side note: 22.40% of our respondents are not using a cloud platform at this moment. As Cloud migration is on the top agenda of CIO's and CTO's, there is still some work to be done. Maybe a good idea to start with the Continuum Cloud Introduction track? Review the recordings of all sessions on this page.
