Longtime Java dev here, I'd say taking Java, and the JVM, and creating a NEW set of libraries would be awesome.
As you said the Java libraries are total crap. Sun was for a while hell-bent on throwing out everything that's good while putting in a lot of badly designed ugly classes. And some things, like AWT and Swing, were just crap from the very start.
A fresh start would be awesome. The main thing that's currently good about Java is the JVM, and Eclipse. Ruby is infinitely more elegant but the dynamic typing and lack of IDE support kills it for me.
As you said the Java libraries are total crap. Sun was for a while hell-bent on throwing out everything that's good while putting in a lot of badly designed ugly classes. And some things, like AWT and Swing, were just crap from the very start.
A fresh start would be awesome. The main thing that's currently good about Java is the JVM, and Eclipse. Ruby is infinitely more elegant but the dynamic typing and lack of IDE support kills it for me.