Making Java Fun Again (It's Possible)

For a long time, "Java" and "fun" were rarely used in the same sentence. The language was often criticized for its verbosity—boilerplate getters/setters, massive configuration XMLs (in the old days), and strict typing that felt restrictive rather than helpful.

But if you haven't looked at Java since version 8, you're missing out on what feels like a completely different language. With the release of Java 21 LTS, the ecosystem is vibrant, modern, and surprisingly expressive.

1. Records: Goodbye Boilerplate

Remember writing a simple DTO (Data Transfer Object)? You needed a class, private final fields, a constructor, getters, `equals()`, `hashCode()`, and `toString()`. Now?

public record User(String name, String email) {}

That is the entire class declaration. The compiler generates everything else for you. It’s immutable by default, perfect for domain-driven design and functional programming patterns.

2. Virtual Threads (Project Loom)

This is the game changer for backend engineers like me. Before, a Java thread mapped 1:1 to an operating system thread. This limited scalability because OS threads are expensive.

Virtual threads are lightweight threads managed by the JVM. You can spawn millions of them without crashing your server.

try (var executor = Executors.newVirtualThreadPerTaskExecutor()) {
    IntStream.range(0, 10_000).forEach(i -> {
        executor.submit(() -> {
            Thread.sleep(Duration.ofSeconds(1));
            return i;
        });
    });
}

This makes writing high-throughput concurrent applications almost as simple as writing sequential code. No need for complex reactive chains (Mono/Flux) unless you really want them.

Conclusion

Java isn't the bulky enterprise dinosaur it used to be. It's evolving faster than ever (6-month release cycles!). If you're building backend systems in 2025, modern Java combined with Spring Boot 3 is a powerhouse that is genuinely joy to work with.