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?

Theoretically you get the same lossless quality, and personnal tests have revealed Dolby True-HD to have much more “pow” and “high pitched details” than simple downconverted sound through HDMI.

I could be wrong too, and it could just be a placebo effect, especially given that Sony does not have specs on this (as far as I know), so please take my assertions with a grain of salt.

As for the SMF thing, I really meant SMF as not being open source; see here: http://www.simplemachines.org/about/license.php
The Simple Machines License is not open source (see the inability to redistribute/modify/derive the package without expressed written consent) and even if it would be, it doesn’t figure in the OSI approved licenses. The ability to see the source code does not imply it being open source.

The new Firefox 3.5 now supports open video formats. What does this mean ? Firefox now supports Theora, which is a truly free and open video format for the internet. This means that we would have to do away with proprietary plugins or restricted codecs…