1. A Computer language developed by SUN which allows you to write software which works on a wide range of computers . JAVA is currently the programming language of choice on the Internet and it allows tiny programs to be created and sent over the network. More information is available at http://java.sun.com/ From Glossary of Distance Education and Internet Terminology

2. A programming language based on C developed in 1996 by Sun Microsystems. It was developed for network computing because it allows for mini-applications, called "applets" to be distributed to different computer clients connected to the network. An applet will run identically on any existing computer environment. Browsers like Netscape & Internet Explorer make use of Java. From Faculty-of-Education

3. A simple, object-oriented, distributed, interpreted, robust, secure, architecture-neutral, portable, multithreaded, dynamic, buzzword-compliant, general-purpose programming language developed by Sun Microsystems in 1995(?). Java supports programming for the Internet in the form of platform-independent Java "applets". From Linux Guide @FirstLinux

4. An object-oriented language originally developed at Sun by James Gosling (and known by the name "Oak") with the intention of being the successor to C++ (the project was however originally sold to Sun as an embedded language for use in set-top boxes). After the great Internet explosion of 1993-1994, Java was hacked into a byte-interpreted language and became the focus of a relentless hype campaign by Sun, which touted it as the new language of choice for distributed applications. Java is indeed a stronger and cleaner design than C++ and has been embraced by many in the hacker community - but it has been a considerable source of frustration to many others, for reasons ranging from uneven support on different Web browser platforms, performance issues, and some notorious deficiencies of some of the standard toolkits (AWT in particular). Microsoft's determined attempts to corrupt the language (which it rightly sees as a threat to its OS monopoly) have not helped. As of 1999, these issues are still in the process of being resolved. Despite many attractive features and a good design, it is difficult to find people willing to praise Java who have tried to implement a complex, real-world system with it (but to be fair it is early days yet, and no other language has ever been forced to spend its childhood under the limelight the way Java has). On the other hand, Java has already been a big win in academic circles, where it has taken the place of Pascal as the preferred tool for teaching the basics of good programming to the next generation of hackers. From Jargon Dictionary

5. An object-oriented programming language developed by Sun Microsystems. to be operating system independent. Java is often used on Web servers. Java applications and applets are sometimes offered as downloads to run on users' systems. Java programming can produce applications, or smaller Java applets. Java is a somewhat simplified version of the C++ language, and is normally interpreted rather than compiled. (Also, see JIT Compiler.) From I-gloss

6. Java is a network-friendly programming language invented by Sun Microsystems. Java is often used to build large, complex systems that involve several different computers interacting across networks, for example transaction processing systems. Java is also becoming popular for creating programs that run in small electronic devicws, such as mobile telephones. A very common use of Java is to create programs that can be safely downloaded to your computer through the Internet and immediately run without fear of viruses or other harm to your computer or files. Using small Java programs (called "Applets"), Web pages can include functions such as animations,calculators, and other fancy tricks. From Matisse

7. Key point: Browsers include a "virtual machine" that encapsulates the Java program and prevents it from accessing your local machine. The theory behind this is that a Java "applet" is really content like graphics rather than full application software. However, as of July, 2000, all known browsers have had bugs in their Java virtual machines that would allow hostile applets to "break out" of this "sandbox" and access other parts of the system. Point: Most security experts browse with Java disabled on their computers, or encapsulate it with further sandboxes/virtual-machines. From Hacking-Lexicon