HACKER Q&A
📣 abrax3141

How much did Java cost


Is the some way to estimate how much a pl cost to develop (and continues to cost to support)?


  👤 thesuperbigfrog Accepted Answer ✓
A rough order of magnitude estimate would be hundreds of millions of dollars.

Java is nearly 30 years old and is widely used in enterprise backend systems, multi-platform desktop applications (e.g. IDEs, tools, games, etc.), and Android application development.

It did not get to where it is today without significant investments by large enterprise companies (Sun Microsystems, Oracle, Google, Amazon, Red Hat, IBM, etc.).

Many of those large enterprise companies are still deeply invested in Java and continue to support it in code / tooling contribtions and financial support. Java is the new COBOL and will likely continue to be used for the foreseeable future.