The Java implementors seem slow to adopt language improvements, for example compare C# with full closures, expression trees, LINQ etc.. to Java, and even the push back of some stuff to Java 8 will still leave it behind the current implementation of C#. However since I dont intend to use either Java or C# that particular language war isnt of interest too much, im more concerned with the JVM vs CLR. Is this lagging-behind also applicable to the JVM? Will Scala, Clojure etc.. will they be able to continue to innovate or score optimal performance in the face of slowly progressing underlying VM such as JVM? Is Clojure/Scala restrained at present by JVM limitations?