Java is a high-level, object-oriented programming language that was originally developed by Sun Microsystems in 1995 (now owned by Oracle). It is widely used for building platform-independent applications, which means that programs written in Java can run on any device or operating system that has a Java Virtual Machine (JVM).
Key features of Java include:
1. **Platform Independence**: Java programs are compiled into bytecode, which can be executed on any system with a JVM, making Java a "write once, run anywhere" language.
2. **Object-Oriented**: Java is based on the object-oriented programming (OOP) paradigm, which organizes code into reusable objects that represent real-world entities.
3. **Automatic Memory Management (Garbage Collection)**: Java automatically handles memory allocation and deallocation, which helps in preventing memory leaks.
4. **Rich Standard Library**: Java comes with a comprehensive standard library that provides many utilities, including data structures, networking, file I/O, and more.
5. **Security**: Java has built-in security features, including runtime checks and a security manager to control access to resources.
Java is commonly used in web and mobile applications (especially Android), enterprise software, and large systems development.