311: Looking back on 30 years of Java (with Azul's Simon Ritter)

What the Dev?

What the Dev?
311: Looking back on 30 years of Java (with Azul's Simon Ritter)
Jun 03, 2025
SD Times

In this episode, Jenna welcomes back Simon Ritter, CTO of Azul, to talk about the history and evolution of Java, which is celebrating its 30 year anniversary this year.

They discuss: 

  • The software development landscape at the time Java was created
  • Key moments in Java's history
  • What has made it such a resilient and long-lasting language


Episode Artwork 311: Looking back on 30 years of Java (with Azul's Simon Ritter) 16:44 Episode Artwork 310: The history of Kubernetes (with Nutanix' Dan Ciruli) 18:10 Episode Artwork 309: How Chase is building the next generation of expert engineers with its E2 program (with Chase's Priti Naik) 14:04 Episode Artwork 308: Why engineering feedback loops fail (and how to avoid that) - with Port's Zohar Einy 11:31 Episode Artwork 307: Value Stream Management is getting a boost from AI (Sponsored by Broadcom) 11:48 Episode Artwork 306: TLS certificate lifespans shortening to 47 days by 2029 (with DigiCert's Dean Coclin) 13:27 Episode Artwork 305: Why PostgreSQL became the database of choice for cloud native development (with Neon's Heikki Linnakangas) 11:06 Episode Artwork 304: The skills developers need in an era of AI development (with AWS' Antje Barth) 14:52 Episode Artwork 303: How AI agents are transforming how software is built (with GitLab's Emilio Salvador) 14:33 Episode Artwork 302: Breaking down the barriers to serverless adoption (with DBOS' Jeremy Edberg) 9:54 Episode Artwork 301: What's new in Java 24 (with Azul's Simon Ritter) 16:24 Episode Artwork 300: The complex world of open source AI (with Red Hat's Stephen Watt) 13:45 Episode Artwork 299: The growing divide between developers and FinOps (with Martin Reynolds from Harness) 13:53 Episode Artwork 298: Building a prompt engineering playground for faster company-wide innovation (with LinkedIn's Lukasz Karolewski and Ajay Prakash) 19:01 Episode Artwork 297: Why a clean codebase is key when using AI-assisted coding tools (with Tabnine's Eran Yahav) 12:31 Episode Artwork 296: DeepSeek Unpacked: Security, Innovation, and What’s Next 26:32 Episode Artwork 295: How middle code is bridging the gap between low-code and traditional programming (with OpsMill's Damien Garros) 10:10 Episode Artwork 294: From "shift left" to "shift everywhere" (with OpenText Cybersecurity's Dylan Thomas) 13:26 Episode Artwork 293: The best ways to deal with flaky tests (with Gradle's Trisha Gee) 16:17 Episode Artwork 292: Software Engineering Intelligence gains traction as Value Stream Management loses it (with Digital.ai's Derek Holt) 16:11 Episode Artwork 291: Containers in 2025: Bridging the gap between software and hardware (with Red Hat's Scott McCarty) 11:41 Episode Artwork 290: The state of software supply chain security (with Sonatype's Brian Fox) 14:52 Episode Artwork 289: Balancing security and convenience in biometric authentication (with Aware's Mohamed Lazzouni) 15:52 Episode Artwork 288: The negative long-term impacts of AI on software development pipelines (with Prismatic's Tanner Burson) 10:39 Episode Artwork 287: How AI is driving innovation in Kubernetes (with Nutanix' Tobi Knaup) 9:47