What Is Java?

Java is a general-purpose, class-based as well as object-oriented programming language that is designed for having lesser implementation dependencies.

It is a computing platform for application development and is fast, secure, and reliable. This is why Java is widely used for the development of applications in data centers, laptops, consoles, phones and scientific supercomputers.

The Java platform is this collection of programs that help programmers develop as well as run Java programming applications in an efficient way, and includes an execution engine, a compiler and even a set of libraries.

Java is generally used for developing Android apps, enterprise software, a wide range of mobile Java applications, big data analytics, programming hardware devices and server-side technologies such as Apache, JBoss, GlassFish and so on.

Java was originally called OAK and was developed for handling portable devices as well as set-top boxes. In 1995, Sun Microsystems changed the name to "Java" and modified the language to take advantage of the World Wide Web development business, in response to the failure of OAK.

In 2009, Oracle Corporation acquired Sun Microsystems and took ownership of three Sun software assets, including Java, MySQL and Solaris.