XYZ is dead! Again?

Isn't the "XYZ is dead!" slogan somehow similar to inventing new buzz-abbreviations like SOA, CRM, PLM etc? Just the two ends of technology lifecycle hype. Considering that there are more than ever open source or free development tools, frameworks and code snippets available for Java and most probably, because of fearing loosing the momentum, Sun is making Java open source, I would predict the next headline to be "The death of J2EE is greatly exaggerated" Yes, Java platform has had some genetic defects from the very beginning: speed/performance, steep learning curve, lack of readily available developing/debugging tools, lack or not very good implementation of some concepts of OO. But the level of sophistication it has reached, is just a sign of a non-fatal middle-life crisis. The best that can be done is to go back to drawing boards and re-invent the Java platform, but does Sun have the will and resources to it. The VB guys are quite in a situation - due to cut of support by Microsoft, the only choice is VB.Net and Visual Studio, .NET with C# being called by some people _the_ Java 3. Who is afraid of platform/provider fix, can ease its fears with Mono - the open source alternative to MS branded common language runtime. But be warned - .NET framework 2.0 has already been a confusing mess of new features and annoying defects. The 3.0 brand is going to be even more confusing by embedding many of the Vista elements in it. The PHP folks are also on the edge of plunging into the sophistication limbo. Limitations of the natively procedural language have forced PHP language developers to embed more OO into the language and there is a myriad of PHP frameworks in development, most notably Symfony and CakePHP. HTML will remain separate and whateverML for the forseeable future, but definitely some promising new 'platforms' like Ruby will pop up. It remains to see shall they become the new de facto standard for ad-hoc or enterprise development. The story of Python - a language quite similar to Ruby - that was a hit 6-7 years ago is currently a niche player and it seems it will remain to be so. Surprisingly, some of the old school languages like Perl and C++ are well and alive, have their own niches Perl for administration and utilities, C++ (universal but) for platform independent GUI development. The next version of Perl is promised to have even better OO and the popular C++ frameworks like Qt are steadily developing their feature set. Overall - is there any language + framework + development toolset that we are really satisfied and with no signs of deterioration? I doubt. There are trends and not that steep to either direction. However the next bold 'perfect' language and platform should definitely aim to be the following: - open source - platform independent - fast - highly OO - support or embedd top class developing and debugging IDE - easy to get started, good documentation and huge community - good for both web and fat-client GUI-s The James Bond of the platforms/programming languages? If you spot one, drop me a note.