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Re:Kotlin becomes second most popular language on the JVM by nullifidian on Thursday February 06, 2020 @03:58AM (#22254590)
>is there really any compelling reason not to choose Kotlin over Java?

Kotlin is being developed primarily by developers based in Russia. Putin relies on geopolitical conflict for consent manufacturing within the country. One of his future antics could turn into a real crisis, where Russia ends up sanctioned and isolated as a result, after a series of tit-for-tat moves, with the corresponding disruption to normal business processes.

Being a Russian product it also carries a risk of one day receiving an update with a payload from Russian secret services, if they find your firm sufficiently interesting. But it's a general consideration with software/hardware from "adversary" countries like China or Russia. The story with Huawei is the same.

Re:Kotlin becomes second most popular language on the JVM by pyuser583 on Thursday February 06, 2020 @04:04AM (#22254631)
What!? It’s being developed by JetBrains, which is headquartered in the Czech Republic - a NATO member!
Re:Kotlin becomes second most popular language on the JVM by nullifidian on Thursday February 06, 2020 @04:10AM (#22254660)
It's registered/incorporated in the Czech Republic, but it's a Russian company. Same way Russian search giant Yandex is incorporated in Netherlands.
Re:Kotlin becomes second most popular language on the JVM by Gaelan on Thursday February 06, 2020 @11:04AM (#22257062)
In more concrete terms, of their ~1000 employees, 600 are in St. Petersburg, their largest office by far.
Re:Kotlin becomes second most popular language on the JVM by pyuser583 on Saturday February 08, 2020 @02:18AM (#22274472)
Ah. That makes things clear.
Re:Kotlin becomes second most popular language on the JVM by isbvhodnvemrwvn on Thursday February 06, 2020 @04:08PM (#22260321)
Kotlin is named after an island protecting the entry to St. Petersburg. While they have some developers in Germany and Czech Republic (plus some remote IIRC), their main development center is in St. Petersburg. I guess they were incorporated in Czech republic due to political issues, but they would still be crippled if they were somehow cut off from their St. Petersburg office.
Re:Kotlin becomes second most popular language on the JVM by thu2111 on Friday February 07, 2020 @03:28AM (#22264151)
The JVM itself has a lot of Russian developers, and IntelliJ is the most popular Java IDE with about 60%+ market share, also developed by JetBrains. Their tools are also widely used in other markets.

But you know, the most aggressive country by far at backdooring systems is the USA. For the vast majority of us who are neither American nor Russian it's all swings and roundabouts.

Re:Kotlin becomes second most popular language on the JVM by ivankolev on Thursday February 06, 2020 @11:54AM (#22257688)
I have always wondered about that myself. I guess I implicitly trust all the large orgs already using their products to do their due diligence, but if it is a targeted attack there is nothing much you could do.
Re:Kotlin becomes second most popular language on the JVM by Bendingo on Friday February 07, 2020 @12:39AM (#22263504)
Would be great to have a tech thread that didn't degenerate into low-grade political opinion.
Re:Kotlin becomes second most popular language on the JVM by iLemming on Thursday February 06, 2020 @08:27PM (#22262366)
Being born in the USSR and having to watch the collapse of the Union and later Putin's rise to power with my own eyes, I can honestly say - this comment is not without sense and everyone should think twice before introducing Kotlin in their company.