

Pony Fail: Why Java App Store won't take off - dedalus
http://thermalnoise.wordpress.com/2009/05/21/pony-fail/

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swombat
_2) Dude, where is my IDE ? Not Netbeans. Something like that shiny “Adobe
Flash” thing._

Obviously the author has never tried to write ActionScript within the _omg-
rip-my-brain-out-before-i-kill-myself-_ awful "Adobe Flash" application.

The best thing Adobe ever did with Flash was base FlexBuilder on Eclipse. I
hear they were going to write their own IDE, but they had just hired some
Microsoft guy who told them they were nuts and convinced them to build it on
top of Eclipse instead.

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wmf
There's a big split between animators who couldn't imagine using Flex and
programmers who can't stomach Flash Authoring. Flex and "traditional" Flash
have little in common other than using the same runtime.

Looking at JavaFX, it's not clear which audience Sun is targeting. It looks
like it's oriented towards programmers, but the language also has things like
built-in animation.

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swombat
Flex has plenty of animation stuff built-in... that doesn't stop it from being
clearly "for programmers"... though to be fair, Flex's animation stuff is
basically effects/transitions.

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teilo
My powers of whit fall short while trying to express how idiotic this idea is.
When I read of this "brilliant" scheme earlier today, I thought it must be
April 1st already.

Honestly, is Sun now being run by the marketing department? "Hey, guys, let's
do the iPhone/Appstore thing. We'll be the first to do it on the desktop! A
sure-fire winner! Besides, if we don't do it first, Adobe will scoop us!"

Riiiiight. Sun thinks that they need a Flash killer, something to compete
against Adobe Air. And as we all know, Adobe Air has just been sooooo
successful on the desktop.

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stcredzero
If they ditch the Java part, or relegate it to it's rightful place as a tech
bullet point, then I think they're onto something. There is a point that would
not just be imitation of Apple. There are a lot of users out there who need
serious hand-holding -- the kind that they have to bug their tech savvy
relatives, pay lots of $$ for, or that they simply don't get right now.

If someone can deliver a dead-simple system for getting slick, high-quality,
security vetted desktop applications to people, it would serve an urgent need.
It doesn't matter if the underlying tech is Java, Python, .Net, whatever. Most
people will only care if it's easy and useful.

Do most people know or care that much of the iPhone code is Objective-C? Nope.
They care that it works.

There is a big problem, however. The iPhone App store could get a critical
mass of potential users because the hardware was so sexy, people bought the
phone even when apps weren't available. What's going to do this for the Java
App Store? Are they going to slip it into the JRE? Also, Sun has a history of
not being able to make things easy or slick enough for the general populace.
Heck, they have a hard time making interfaces gearheads like!

 _"My powers of whit fall short..."_

Unintentional irony is often the funniest.

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lurkinggrue
I haven't had Java installed on my computer for years, not going to start now.

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axod
That's an insane comment. Don't even know where to start.

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amilr
why? the only use for java on my PC right now is that one of my banks' website
requires it for login.

