Sun Microsystems changed the world in 1995 when it introduced Java, a hybrid of traditional compiled programming languages and interpreted scripting languages. Java was the first widely successful platform to adopt this hybrid technology strategy. Until the launch of the .NET platform by Microsoft, Sun's Java platform was the de facto web application platform. Even today, Java continues to thrive in the open source community and other community-driven development teams. Through the Java development community, many innovative (and free) libraries have been built which provide for elegant design metaphors, making Java a favorite of more academically-inclined programmers.

Sun offers certifications for developers, which can serve as a mark of professional Java experts.