Agreed about the verbosity and Java 8 is only making the situation worse. I've been a Clojure enthusiast for a number of years now, but I was hoping there would be less of a need to use other JVM languages with Java 8 and Streams. I find working with Streams to be 3 steps forward and 2 back. The syntax (as usual) is cumbersome, and add a layer of generics on top of that and you have somewhat of a mess. I also find interop with traditional Java Collections to be annoying though maybe I am not following (yet to be discovered) best practices for dealing with Streams.

Edit: Ohh and BTW, if you ever have the opportunity to see James Ward speak in person, do so. He is a great presenter, and a regular cast member at the Boulder Java User Group.

This kind of sums up my opinion on the top (warning, is a little inflammatory):

http://www.slideshare.net/jeffz/why-java-sucks-and-c-rocks-f...

I won't defend the tone of that but some of the points are valid (particularly with Java pre-8).

Agreed. It is awesome for what it is. But it is not my cup of tea.