December 4th, 2008

Schwartz: Three reasons you need JavaFX

Posted by Ed Burnette @ 5:03 am

Categories: General, Java, Programming, Sun

Tags: Developer, Java Platform, Sun Microsystems Inc., JCP, Audience, JavaFX, Ed, Jonathan, Microsoft Obviously, Java

In the run-up to today’s launch of JavaFX, ZDNet sat down with Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz to get his thoughts on JavaFX, Flash, and the future of Java.

[ Read: Sun launches JavaFX 1.0, and JavaFX Q&A ]

[Ed] Q. Why did Sun create JavaFX?

[Jonathan] At a top level, we see three real imperatives that are driving us towards the FX platform. The first, that seems evident to the companies that I talk to, is that the browsers have become hostile environments. Microsoft obviously controls the default settings and configuration for Internet Explorer, Google obviously has the pole position with their payment stream to Firefox as well as with Chrome, and none of the other browsers really has the distribution that would cause them to be a focal point for developers. But, the Java platform obviously has that distribution, and in fact that distribution is so profound at this point–we do from 60 to 80 million downloads a month–that you probably know Microsoft recently struck a contract with Sun where we’d agree to share that distribution with Microsoft because we in fact out-distribute Microsoft into their own installed base.

We see developers wanting to own their audiences, and own their ability to establish a relationship with those audiences. If you know about the un-snapping feature in JavaFX now you can see how a developer can deliver content and then simply have the consumer un-snap it and place it on their desktop. After they’ve done that, they now have unilateral access to the consumer they’re trying to serve, as opposed to having to go through a TicketMaster that might be interested in promoting their business.

Next: Two more reasons >

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