Philip Greenspun: "A project done in Java will cost 5 times as much, take twice as long, and be harder to maintain than a project done in a scripting language such as PHP or Perl."

Back in 2001, Paul Graham wrote a very nice related essay, Java's Cover: "Over time, hackers develop a nose for good (and bad) technology. I thought it might be interesting to try and write down what made Java seem suspect to me."