A Deserter Returns: What the Java community helped me rediscover

After several years of Java development, I had left the ecosystem behind. Not out of spite, but out of pragmatism: Python was getting the job done. Beefy CI/CD pipelines, easier to write; daily tools that bent to fit any need; in short, the simple joy of writing a Hello World without filling out three XML files first. The rise of AI cemented Python as the obvious choice. I had no reason left to reopen a Java IDE. None.

Except that a handful of friends kept the thread alive, with that community, with that ecosystem. A conference here, an article there, and little by little, certain projects started catching my eye. Step by step, I discovered what you could now build CLIs in Java with picocli, with a type system that doesn't lie on top. Then came Quarkus: blazing-fast startup, native compilation, no more excuses about JVM heft. The final piece of the trinity was TamboUI: elegant TUIs and a pleasant DSL, offering a modern, refreshing take on terminal applications, in Java.

In this talk, let me tell you how Java found its way back into my toolbox and my geeky heart: why I had left, why I thought I'd never come back, and how the community kept my mind open. No sermon, no holy war, just a language and technology lover reconsidering things, and who thinks you might want to take a second look too.