Which company developed the Java programming language?

Java was developed by Sun Microsystems, a team led by James Gosling, and released publicly in 1995. Its promise was “write once, run anywhere”: Java programs run on any device with a Java Virtual Machine (JVM). Oracle bought Sun in 2010 and now owns Java.

Company That Developed the Java Programming Language

From Oak to Java

Java began in 1991 as the Green Project, aimed at programming consumer electronics such as TV set-top boxes. Gosling first named the language Oak, after a tree outside his office. The name was already trademarked, so the team chose Java, after the coffee from the Indonesian island, which is also why the logo is a steaming coffee cup.

How “write once, run anywhere” works

A programmer writes Java code.
It’s compiled into bytecode, not machine code for one specific computer.
Any device with a JVM translates the bytecode for its own hardware.

This let the same program run on Windows, Mac, Linux and more without changes.

Where Java is used

Area	Examples
Enterprise software	Banking systems, large business apps
Android apps	Long the main language for Android; see who created Android
Games	Minecraft: Java Edition
Big data	Tools like Hadoop
Web servers	Back-end services

Java vs JavaScript

Despite the similar names, Java and JavaScript are different languages. JavaScript was created at Netscape in 1995, and its name was chosen partly to ride on Java’s popularity; see who created JavaScript.

	Java	JavaScript
Created by	Sun Microsystems	Netscape (Brendan Eich)
Runs	On the JVM	Mostly in web browsers
Typing	Statically typed	Dynamically typed

Today

Java remains one of the most widely used programming languages. Kotlin, which runs on the JVM, is now Google’s preferred language for Android. To start learning a language, see how to learn coding online, and for another language’s unusual name, why Python is called Python.