However, don’t take this as “Java is less powerful than Flash/Silverlight”. Of course not. Java is an order of magnitude more powerful and capable than Flash and has a higher potential than Silverlight. Since Silverlight 4 however, you have the ability to take the complete CLR, which is analogous to Java’s JVM, online in the browser, which makes Silverlight somewhat on par with Java Applets in terms of capabilities.

But that’s exactly the problem, it looks like Sun had it all wrong. I don’t know what’s up with these people and Java really. It’s as if they thought Java was weak. Truthfully if you really want to make JavaFX RIAs, you’re better off making straight Java Applets. They’ll load faster and they’ll enable you to use Java (or other JVM languages for that matter) instead of JavaFX Script. There’s no real benefit of the tools you’re going to get if you use JavaFX, so it’s just not worth it.

Oracle, which recently bought Sun, does intend to change that, apparently, but it’s a game lost before it’s started in my opinion. Flash’s arguably main use on the web, video, thanks to YouTube, is being supplanted by HTML5 video and Silverlight, despite the tools and support is in the same boat. Things are going plugin-agnostic so unless you need to develop powerful enterprise apps in Java and leverage the skills for both client and server solutions, stay away from it.

Nonetheless, learning Java instead of PHP is a really good idea. The new Java EE 6 platform is much simpler and is going to become even more powerful than it already is with Oracle on it. I still think Java has a place in applications, notably in the mobile space (a.k.a. Android) or in the high performance complex RIA space which actually doesn’t exist yet; think Photoshop and 3D Animation apps in the browser. But then again, the future looks like it’s holding something else under the name Google Chrome and Google Go. I’d look at that for the future of web applications.

So yes, again, I think JavaFX is useless and crappy.

JavaFX 1.2 (today 1.2.1) is out. Where do you see improvements?

Where are still the big blockers?

If you read correctly, I also make note that this happens on Mac only. The Windows release of JavaFX is, yes, less broken than the first releases of Silverlight, and yes, Silverlight had a lot to do, and still has, to catch up with Flex.

I don’t work for Adobe, or Microsoft, and yes this article is pretty much ranting and not an actual calm comparison, that, I have to admit. But no, on the contrary to being an Adobe or Microsoft fan-boy, it was more deception to see JavaFX being at that point right now than anything else.

I was hopping that particular JavaFX release would have VP8 as video, as was announced, etc. We’ll see how it goes.

Who do you work for? Adobe, Microsoft, or one of their partners? The first silverlight release was far more broken than javafx. What is this, selective memory?