The architectures, license (GPL + classpath exception; i.e. it is not viral), and Oracle's leadership of OpenJDK has worked well for many companies for years, like Amazon, Google, Netflix and Apple, that base much or most of their infrastructure on it.
This seems only useful if you want to use the VM, not if you want to embed it into your own application.
But the whole classpath exception clause is confusing to me (and from what I see I'm not the only one). I just want to write code, as opposed to interpreting licenses ... I.e., exactly why I would avoid this project, regardless of any good intentions from the side of the project team.
It's OK, some things are not for everyone; some people avoid Linux, that has a similar license -- perhaps even more complex when you consider gcc and glibc -- for similar reasons. The GPLv2+CPE license has been around for over a decade and is used by one of the largest and most successful open-source projects that, in turn, is used by millions of developers and the world's largest companies.
You can embed the JVM into an app using the JNI APIs without triggering the GPL.
I agree the GPL+CE is a confusing license, however. But you're arguing that you should avoid Java because of the license. Think about all the companies that use it, when was the last time they had any issues because of the GPL?
