We just expect people and, by extension, our computers, to figure the right date. The hypesters should realize the problem is partly one of the human interface, and not merely two missing bytes in some legacy program. Recently I have read articles that said Java would take over the world, or that it was dead, or that it was growing, but not as fast as last year's hype claimed. I am still trying to learn Java, so I may miss the mark in some areas, but I will give what I think is a balanced view. The benefits of Java that are most often cited are its portability and its security.
Some divergence is inevitable.
As these development kits improve, programmers will have less incentive to make sure their code is portable. I keep expecting to see compilers for other languages that directly generate Java bytecodes. Java's security is important for Internet applets and is probably nearly adequate for that job. It will continue to get better, but will probably always have some loopholes. The best cure for security faults is to have lots of users looking for them and a dedicated team fixing them.