Hi all, so I'm thinking about taking a couple of courses in Java development but I've been out of the programming loop for a while. Is there still a demand or future demand for Java developers or development or is it getting replaced? In what area do you think Java will be used most? Appreciate any answers!

There's a hell of a demand, specially for distributed enterprise applications. If you're a Java man, you're sure to be successful on the market. There's also a similar demand for .NET programmers, but I would bet on Java if I were you.

Game-wise, unfortunately, you're limited to mobile devices. Consoles do not support Java as of now, and who knows if they ever will. The PC gaming market has a better chance, though; Since Java is portable, and good enough for game programming, the advent of portability might give you some room as an indie developer. I'm not one to comment on this market, though.

Son Of Cain

Java game development appears to be utterly dead outside of the cell phone arena. Yes, a few poor souls are clutching onto it desperately, and doing decently nice stuff, but it's too much effort for too little work.

The real fight is Java vs .NET in the enterprise and business apps sectors. I suspect it'll eventually balance out at some level with the two being roughly level (50/50, 40/60, whatever). Things will probably end up with .NET being used in the windows arena and Java being used elsewhere -- not because of any inherent limitation of either platform but because of the idiotic stigmas that the market and the people in the markets have.

At the end of the day, there's really one answer. As with any type of development, anybody who knows only one language is useless. If you only know Java, you're a terrible programmer, end of story. (Same goes for any language.) Learn C#, learn C++, learn Python, learn Ruby, whatever. Be dynamic and flexible; a new environment should not be a culture shock but a half day of learning, followed by normal productivity.

As a developer of enterprise Java applications, I have the impression that .Net might have a future as a platform for Windows only desktop applications as a technically superior alternative to old Visual Basic and MFC, while for business software it has a place and a future only
a) in Microsoft's marketing propaganda and products
b) in theory (good programming languages like C# are not enough)
c) among Microsoft fanboys (including customers, consultants and individual programmers).

.Net is tied to Windows, and Windows (apart from being an inadequate server operating system in general) is tied to low-end servers.
Large and important IT infrastructure normally runs on overpriced high availability and high performance servers running Linux, Solaris and other UNIX variants or IBM z/OS, CICS and the like.
In this kind of environment Java with its very capable application servers, compiled languages like C++ and COBOL, and all sorts of mature scripting languages (shell, Perl, Python...) are readily available and nobody needs Microsoft's proprietary and inferior alternatives.

Java will be around for a long time. Sun has JVMs on multiple platforms that it maintains itself, Microsoft depends on third parties to provide access to .Net outside it's own operating system products.

Because many servers are still *nix, Java still has active web and enterprise things - and that's what Sun concentrates on. As far as game dev goes - Sun doesn't really promote that side of things. Game servers may be, but game clients? Outside websites and mobile phones, that doesn't seem to happen so much.

I think having Java on your CV is a good thing, but as most universities do that now as standard it's a very samey thing. I'm sure some employers would prefer you know Java + something else unmanaged - just to prove you can think that way.