There's a lot to dislike about java, but the platform independence story of the JVM really is the best of anything out there that I've experienced. That doesn't necessarily mean Java anymore, Clojure, Scala, etc. all benefit from the work done to make the JVM truly platform independent. But when I compare it to my experiences with Node.js, ruby, or haskell, (dependencies not working because library maintainers forgetting (or don't care) that not every one uses their preferred development operating system), I am really grateful for all the boring, finicky work that contributors have put into making a truly cross platform development target.