MS is slowly killing off Java so they can push Bedrock (much less flexible) on everyone though. And all my daughter's friends use Bedrock :-\. I have a server with GeyserMC running to let them play together but it definitely isn't what it once was.
Bedrock might be more popular, but I think there is a large community with absolutely zero interest in ever moving away from Java.
I will never go back to playing Minecraft without Distant Horizons after experiencing it, so Bedrock is absolutely not an option for me unless they added real LOD features natively.
> Bedrock might be more popular, but I think there is a large community with absolutely zero interest in ever moving away from Java.
Yes, exactly. It seems the demographic for Bedrock tends towards kids because it's supported on tablets. IME the demographic for Java is either older kids or adults or people with interest in modpacks, which is a lot of people. All the major YouTubers who have run worlds for challenges for years are all on Java.
Whenever someone in my group asks to play some MC, there's no "Bedrock or Java?" question, it's just Java every time.
The only major thing Bedrock has right now that Java doesn't is the new stock shaders, but I assume that is coming to Java soon.
I do think that I have yet to see a bedrock player on windows as compared to java player on windows & I have been playing minecraft for so long and joined so many discord communities of minecraft related as well and that's my experience.
Java is really peak minecraft, with modpacks as well. You should try out prismlauncher, its open source and works quite smoothly on linux and you can try a lot of modpacks which the bedrock players can't play.
Fabuously Optimized is a must have modpack given how efficient it can make minecraft / give fps boosts
During ramblings about new Minecraft jeb_ recently said that java is not going to be sunsetted, or at least that's what I understood.
Of course the course of Microsoft and jeb_ might be different and he might get pushed towards some decisions later. The problem is that kids nowadays don't use computers. They use phones and tablets. For me Minecraft experience on phone is awful but there are many young generations that consider it native way of playing games
It is one of the versions that lots of mods were made for, and so some significant mod packs have stayed with it for decades.
Part of it was the almost year between 1.7.x and 1.8, so some major mods like Thaumcraft never made the jump.
Gregtech New Horizons (GTNH) has been back porting mods and features to 1.7.10 (like the ability to run on Java 20+) because that’s easier than porting the whole mod pack forward.
Part of the reason was 1.8 Forge made it so most mods had to be re-written iirc. Also, Thaumcraft updated past 1.7 (Unfinished as Azanor left modding, but that's besides the point)
The impression I got was they actively promote Bedrock, but take the necessary steps to keep Java supported. They make more money from Bedrock, makes sense to budget there.
The performance is nice, but the advanced modding scene is non-existent. In java a mod author can do just about anything they can imagine and write code for. Somehow i doubt we will ever see dimensional doors as a bedrock mod.
I have the opposite experience, unfortunately. It's not a perfect comparison, but my base M1 MacBook Pro (8GB RAM) gets consistently solid performance out of Java edition, but my M3 iPad Air (also 8GB RAM, but better chip) drops frames constantly in Bedrock.
