Java characteristics:

1. Java .class files are machine-independent, including the endianness.
2. Java .class files are not optimized
3. .class files comprises "bytecode"
4. different from "interpreted languages" in an additional step javac (source file cannot be interpreted directly)
5. language "Scala" can produce .class files with non-java language, languages like "JRuby" can interprete ruby & run in JVM
6. Java cannot guarantee 100% security
7. Java always pass by value
8. Java do not support full multiple inheritance
9. Java has no operator overloading
10. Java is statically typed
11. Java has namespaces
12. Java is multithreaded

Java Criticisms:

1. Overly verbose (grammatically redundant)
2. Java is not changing fast like C#, is not supporting new common features
3. Java is fast now, sometimes beats C/C++
4. desktop & GUI components are insecure, leads to a pushback of Java 8
5. not freewheeling, that's why OpenJDK is there