Java 2 Browser Edition
In his blog, Ethan Nicolas suggests to have a smaller, more compact Java2 version, the J2BE (Java 2 Browser Edition).
He thinks that JRE (Java Runtime Edition) is too bloated (~7MB) and Sun must create a smaller edition that will dynamically download any necessary classes from the Internet whenever they are needed.
I totally agree with the above. JRE is indeed too bloated and that new cut-down version could be nice and could easily beat Macromedia Flash (now part of Adobe) and AJAX.
However, he also supports that 1) Java is slow, 2) it is unreliable and 3) it cannot be installed easily. Starting from the latter, I say that he either didn’t install Java or that he is using some exotic hardware. I’m using Java on GNU/Linux and Microsoft Windows XP and have never had any problems installing it - moreover on my Linux (OpenSUSE 10.0) it was installed automatically during installation. And I do not know anyone, either simple user or developer that had problems. Of course I’ve never had any problems with Flash either.
He states that Java is unreliable. Yes it is, if the developer does a crappy job. In the mean time, my browser hung while viewing Flash content, just because the developer made a crappy job. So it is not a Java problem, it is a developer mentality and ability.
And here comes the first argument: Java is slow (while starting). Yes, the JVM is a bit slow to come up, however in today’s machines it is not that bad. And I prefer to have a slow start than a slow experience (TM).
What he forgets though is that:
- Flash is only available in a few platforms, while Java, through the open-source implementations, is available in almost all platforms - have you ever seen Flash on Alpha processors? I haven’t…
- Java is a lot safer than Flash - yes, Flash has some security flaws and nobody, except Macromedia, knows them. Recently a bug was discovered. What was the last time there was a security flaw in Java?
- AJAX does not scale well. Today’s AJAX applications are simple. But what will happen tomorrow when there will be full featured applications? Are there any tools to create such applications? For Java I can think of some (eclipse, NetBeans, JBuilder etc.).