So the keynote started with the usual fanfare with dancers and the mandatory t-shirt throwing contest. The big theme this year is JAVA+YOU
JavaFX
The JavaFX Demo even though it crashed a few times was pretty impressive. They wrote a Facebook app in JavaFX using the new Java browser plugin you were able to drag the application from the browser to the desktop and it was now running with as a full desktop app.
First impressions is that Sun have really worked really hard on JavaFX and it’s even running on Android.
JavaFX production releases looks still a way off with early access next month.
Java SE Update 10
Is going to have a preview release today. Well that means we will see it on the Mac in about 1-2 years :) This update contain the new Java plugin architecture.
Glasshfish V3
So Sun make it sound like that micro-containers or micro-kernels is a new concept and that 100K kernel is something really revolutionary. That said I think that the Glassfish implementation is something that is definitely work further investigation. If JBoss don’t pickup there game and get JBoss5 out the door they could lose market share to Glassfish and the new SpringSource App Server.
JavaFX Blu-ray and BDJ
Another pretty impressive demo was with Neil Young (old old school rocker) and his blu-ray disc series. Now that blu-ray was won the HD format war I think that BDJ is going to be an import technology. The fact that you can develop JavaFX for the BDJ platform and that BDJ is in every PS3 that along is pretty compelling reason to take a serious look at JavaFX. This is something you could do with flash.
Summary
I think that this year Sun are giving a much more cohesive message and that they have a clear direction for the Java Platform that for once is actually compelling.
JavaFX - For UI on ALL devices
JavaSE - to power JavaFX on the desktop
JavaME - to power JavaFX on mobile devices
JavaEE - to power the connected apps and services
I think they may finally have the right recipe…
looking forward to getting my hands dirty!!!!!!