I don't mean to be pedantic, but the 'Java is slow' thing simply isn't true anymore. It certainly used to be slow back in the day, but it's actually pretty good these days.
From what I've heard, programmers at Google put it in the same ballpark as C++.
This brings me to another point.. the choice of programming language often has more to do with image and branding as opposed to actual technical merit.
That's why we keep hearing the same old mantras:
Java -> uncool and slow
C/C++ -> fast
PHP -> hack
Ruby -> cool but slow
Cobol -> for dinosaurs
.. even after the problems are fixed, the image remains. It's pretty hard to change people's perceptions.
JIT compiled languages are slow to load, because they have to compile each bit of code the first time they run it. That is why Java is known as a slow language, even though it does fine in benchmarks: because loading is the one operation that's slow enough for the user to notice.
A lot of java software implementations are still very very slow. Try restarting a tomcat servlet container (web server) for some java web project and then try the same with some apache or django dev server. One takes 10 seconds, the other is done in a blink in of an eye. Look at eclipse/netbeans vs. xcode, swing applications vs. wxwidgets applications and so on. Java very bad start up times still makes it effectively slow.
From what I've heard, programmers at Google put it in the same ballpark as C++.
This brings me to another point.. the choice of programming language often has more to do with image and branding as opposed to actual technical merit.
That's why we keep hearing the same old mantras:
Java -> uncool and slow
C/C++ -> fast
PHP -> hack
Ruby -> cool but slow
Cobol -> for dinosaurs
.. even after the problems are fixed, the image remains. It's pretty hard to change people's perceptions.