Java came around after C++ frameworks and 3rd party cross platform compilers were killed off
I remember things a bit differently. There was a big push to simplify coding using OOP principles and there were a plethora of cross platform C++ frameworks and a number of compiler vendors supporting most if not all of them. OOP abstracts the underlying system and that's not what Bill and Steve wanted to see so they came up with MFC and forced it on all of the Windows ISVs. Once MFC was popular enough and they had the control, they would not license MFC to compiler vendors to ship as an optional framework. From what I recall, they were given the option of MFC-only or no MFC.
So gone were as the hope of cross platform well designed OOP frameworks and gone were most of the compiler vendors which were also supporting the C++ standard as it matured. Unlike Microsoft who took about 10 years to support each C++ standard.
Smalltalk was starting to gain traction in the industry looking for OOP and a way to manage codebases and develoers. The Internet was gaining traction, CORBA was picking up too and then Java hit the scene and developers mostly loved it and so did IDE vendors. It was getting lots of love and even from Microsoft as everyone worked to make development easier and the JVM faster. But a voice yelled out from the front of the room, "Does anyone remember Windows?" and then Microsoft J++ bastardized Java so it only ran on Windows, they poached Borland for their top IDE and language designers and insructed them to make something like Java but not Java and it had to leverage Windows internals. ie it didn't run anywhere but on Windows. C# and a framework I forget it's name but something with Forms in it.
Java was still hot but desktop apps in Java stalled even with JFC framwork but companies, big companies were making business application suites to leverage the Internet and it was all in Java. Microsoft killed Netscape and with it also died CORBA. I still run a few Java client apps but most many are now either Qt based or Python+Qt based. Tried Mono and it crashed constantly which wasn't a surprise since for decades Microsoft software is designed specifically to work only with Windows so anything else is the ugly 3rd cousin in the corner.