There are two main advantages that can be identified when using a Java virtual machine. These two advantages are the security of the program and the cross platform feature.
Basically, a virtual machine is a layer of abstraction that is put over a program and provides it with on interface that has been simplified for the purpose of interacting with possibly many different computer machines and the operating systems that they run on.
- The advantage of security.
The Java virtual machine comes with the great benefit of its security because before this virtual machine runs for malicious activity, it verifies all of the programming that it encounters. Any error, whether minor or serious, inside a Java program are confined to one specific area of the virtual machine.
- Advantage of cross platform.
Alongside security, the cross platform is one of the Virtual Machine's greatest advantage. This feature lets a program be written and compiled just once. Then it is able to run on a much wider variety of operating systems without it being modified every time. This feature means that it is handy for cell phones, which often come with this virtual machine installed.
The slow speed of this program is one of the only let downs. The slowness is due to the fact that the programming must be translated from ordinary byte code into a specific machine code so that the system it is targeting can actually run it. At the moment it is impossible for Java virtual machine to do this translation quickly.
- Disadvantage of platform specific features.
This disadvantage arises because virtual machines have to be able to run on a wide variety of operating systems. This means that any features that would only be available on one operating system are not installed into Java programs.
