Why JavaFX is Relevant
By Jim Connors 4 December 2008

This week marks the formal release of JavaFX 1.0.  During the interval between the early marketing blitz and now, we've heard a lot from our friends in the press and the blogosphere, and in many instances what they had to say was not very pretty.  Some think the Rich Internet Application platform battle lines are already drawn between Adobe and Microsoft, and dismiss Sun as having arrived too late to the party.  Others opine that JavaFX's underlying Java platform is so yesterday.  In fact Java is the primary reason why JavaFX will, much to the chagrin of many, receive serious consideration.  Here's why:

• Java is ubiquitous.  It is the proven, de-facto platform for web-based deployment.  On the desktop, it is estimated that approximately 90% of PCs have Java installed. In fact the major PC OEMs have seen fit to install it for you out of the box.  In the mobile world, Java is the dominant deployment platform.  Billions (that's with a 'b') of devices run Java.
  

• The Java development community is arguably the largest on the planet.  Java gained initial widespread acclaim as a productive development environment, and continues to do so.  As JavaFX is an evolution of Java and seamlessly integrates with it, human nature tells us that individuals will naturally want to work with and leverage that which they already know and are familiar with.

• Alternatives are still no match for the Java Virtual Machine.  It has been extensively studied, vetted, scrutinized, poked, prodded, abused, cloned, and optimized more than any other virtual machine in the history of computing. And just in case you're under the impression that the Java Virtual Machine is limited only to the Java (and now JavaFX script) programming languages, think again.  At last count there were over 200 projects integrating modern dynamic languages to the Java VM.  That list includes the usual suspects like PHP, Ruby, JavaScript, Python, and [insert your favorite language here].
  

• The amount of Java Standard Edition online updates is staggering.  We know.  We supply the downloads.  And once a desktop is upgraded, it will be able to take full advantage of the features JavaFX brings to the table, effectively trivializing the barriers to entry.