It's already #3 according to some rankings out there, behind JavaScript and Python. It's growth that will be the deciding factor.

I agree that Java is not going anywhere, but I could absolutely see a world where JavaScript and Python are number one and two.

According to that Stack Overflow survey, JavaScript and Python are currently number one and two respectively.

After Excel

Ya, but the ranking don't really matter, the usage does. It's possible Java grew year over year and yet lost rank.

I certainly agree that language rankings don’t really matter. In very broad strokes, “used everywhere,” “used many places,” “used some places,” “pretty niche,” “academic only,” these kinds of things are more useful than arguing which is 5 vs 6.

Well on GitHub this is already the case since quite some time.