JavaOne: Sun rolls out JavaFX

James Gosling, the so-called father of Java, catapults T-shirts toward the JavaOne audience.

(Credit: Dan Farber/CNET News.com)

SAN FRANCISCO--Following a flurry of T-shirts catapulted by Java creator James Gosling and a hot dance troop performance, 75 hours of JavaOne got under way here this week. Sun Microsystems' software chief, Rich Green, took the stage to talk about consumers, people he sees as driving change.

"Information is crossing the moat, escaping the castle," he said. "The private information network is gone." Enterprises have to recognize that the enterprise moat barriers are coming down, he added, with consumers driving innovation.

Rich Green, Sun's software chief, emphasizes consumer innovation on the JavaOne stage.

(Credit: Dan Farber/CNET News.com)

As part of Sun's effort to enable consumers to innovate, Green introduced JavaFX, a rich Internet application environment set to compete with Adobe Systems' AIR and Microsoft's Silverlight.

He showed a JavaFX application with Flickr and Twitter feeds running in Facebook within the browser, and then he dragged it out of the browser--to the desktop. The same application also was shown running on a Java-enabled phone via JavaFX Mobile.

Unfortunately, the application, using the new Java Update 10 browser plug-in, kept crashing. "It's the size of the pipes in Moscone Center," Green complained. "This is the Moscone terror moment."

Sun is hoping to tap into 2.2 billion mobile devices and the vast majority of desktop PCs that are Java-enabled. JavaFX was shown running on Google's Android mobile platform. Green noted that 85 percent of cell phones, 91 percent of desktops, and 100 percent of all Blu-ray Disc players will run JavaFX.

JavaFX applications will run across desktops, browsers, and mobile devices.

(Credit: Sun Microsystems)

Sun also plans to deliver JavaFX from the cloud and to gather instrumented user action data via JavaFX that goes back to developers. It could be used for advertising or to provide information to customers, Green said.

Sun plans to deliver the first version of JavaFX Desktop and browsers in the fall. The mobile version is slated for the spring of 2009. Developers can get early access to the JavaFX runtime.

See also: Dana Gardner's post "Profits-strapped Sun continues decade-long pitch to developers on Java dominance"

[andrew.mager]

I dunno how I feel about this. I think Sun is late to the party.

Nevertheless, good post, Mr. Super Blogger.

[skurewu]

Interesting that it will run on Android. Will Google include it as part of their standard library?

[jamshid]

Pardon the rant... That's funny, the demo kept crashing because of "the new Java Update 10 browser plug-in".

What, not a lot of talk about J2ME? I'll always wonder why they bothered renaming it to JavaME, since it wasn't going anywhere. And where do they get off claiming that 85% of mobile phones will run JavaFX? Maybe new phones coming out in 2010, so that means nothing.

I think it's very telling that when it came to creating the Android JVM, Google said "move!" and made one themselves instead of using anything from Sun.

One of Sun's big failings around mobile technology was letting J2ME suck so much. The other was letting handset makers release phones that couldn't be upgraded to fix all the bugs and limitations that make J2ME suck so much.

Sorry to hate on Sun so much, but J2EE is crap, overhyped, sprawling technology born in and reflecting an age of Irrational exuberance.

Mostly though I hate the way Sun held mobile technology back by 4 years -- it shouldn't have taken the iphone to start the mobile revolution, we should be years into it by now . Good thing Apple was there to pick up Sun's slack, and let's hope Google keeps Apple open.

Just because JavaFX is the better technology does not mean that it will prevail easily. Microsoft and Adobe have done an excellent job creating fanboys in every forum out there making noise about solutions that otherwise nobody would care about.

[Commentor5]

I have to strongly disagree that J2EE (now JEE) is not crap. I think this is a very good server-side platform.

Anyway ...I think JavaFX is going to fall flat on its face for web applictions if it requires people to download the Java RE and install on their PC. I think most people would not be willing to do this. They will just simply say "Oh ..forget that" ..and go to another page.

I am also not sold on Java as a desktop platform. Most people do not have Java RE installed on their PCs and it is a hassle for most PC users.

Server-side Java, on the other hand, is great I think.

[jmdecombe]

Been there, done that. Java on the client never worked really well for the customer; it was always a pain in the ass (plugin installation, scary certification dialog, slow loading time, etc.). The reason is because people at Sun, at least those in charge, never really believed in nor cared about Java on the client. Too late guys... see you in another life or in a parallel universe.

[jinx101a]

Perhaps these "fanboys" are fans of Adobe and MS because they've made products that are easy to develop feature rich projects with. Perhaps some people like developing with their products and something is to be said of for that. The idea that their "fanboys" simply because the companies want them to be that way certainly a heavily biased comment from the outset. You just assume that everyone whose anyone should hate anyone on another side of the fence than Java. If Java wants to rule languages (and there is poetential that it could) the elitest mentality will need to change in it's community.

[WulfTheSaxon]

Everybody forgets about Mozilla Prism...