Sure, lots of software gets written in Java. And (less so) Cobol and Fortran. Every sensitive Java (and PHP, etc) user who is on HN and feels compelled to respond to every slight has to understand, though:
HN was founded by the guy who wrote Beating the Averages[0].
We're in PG's house. And he never liked Java.
So if Java fans come here with a chip on their shoulder about it and constantly take the bait and get into flamewars about how solid and adequate their language is, they should remember what forum they're in. Not that opinions in the forum can't be changed, but why bother when there's plenty of Java love out there elsewhere?
And I think he's naive in that blog in using single language as a criteria to evaluate developers, but there's another story.
You can keep responding to that dislike, but on HN, given its natural audience, staking out much of a pro-Java position is doomed to futility.
I down-voted you just now because you do not make any specific points or claims about Java to disagree with, beyond "bad" and "terrible".
Working outside of Rails, I've found there's actually a fair amount of that in Ruby. And auto-require like functionality it helpful, with little to no downsides.
The same is true of IntelliJ IMO. Some developers prefer Sublime. I find code written in Sublime to be consistently messier, with more of a "this person just kept writing code until they got something that compiled" feel. Instead of having the ability to explore methods at your fingertips just an "arrow down" or ALT+SPACE or CTRL+J or CMD+B away, they use a map and filter where they probably wanted a collect.
IMO you could say the same thing about C# and VS as well. Using tools that require as much work from the developer as the developer requires from the tools has gotten way out of hand. Delphi turned this sorry state of affairs into an art form.
Or, for that matter, C++. You can write C++ in Vim, but I sure wouldn't. Especially with clang-driven features in Xcode being so helpful.
The difference is significant.
The fact I need an IDE to make it workable (just) highlights this point. J2EE was terrible too, because it showed where things can go, if you let the Java astronaut architects lead.
Some of my most profitable projects were helping to rescue systems by migrating to to an alternative language on the JVM, or off it completely.
The worst part is the damage Java inflicted upon a generation of developers.
I have a problem, I think I will use Java, and Eclipse, and Maven, and all the rest. Now I have twenty thousand problems!
Edit - if you disagree, then say so. Bit spineless to downvote without a valid point to back it up!