Everybody talks about Silverlight and Flash and Flex and how cool etc...
Java applets are very similar to Silverlight and Flex, but Java applets exist since 1995.
What is the reason we don't have any cool Java applet applications around?
My guesses so far: start up time of Java applet, restricted network connectivity, lack of dev tools, ...
Are there any cool Java applets around?
Please post links
Java applets and the others are for different purposes. Applets are for code-intensive applications; Java is for programmers. Flash and Silverlight are more for presentation, and a designer will feel quite at home using these. Obviously all of these technologies are versatile enough to overlap in their function quite a lot, but Flash and Silverlight are designed to make certain things easier. JavaFX is comparable to Flash and Silverlight.
I'm not saying Java applets can't be used to make "cool" things like you see in Flash all the time, but that it takes considerably more work to do so, and is thus not the common approach. I see a lot more advanced physics simulations in Java than Flash. I've yet to see any Silverlight in the wild.
One of the main reasons no one uses applets is that microsoft released their own java vm which broke the java standard. It was a disaster for Java Applet writers. Applications would work on one vm, but not the other.
Another internal Microsoft document indicates that the plan was not simply to blunt Java/browser cross-platform momentum, but to destroy the cross-platform threat entirely, with the "Strategic Objective" described as to "Kill cross-platform Java by grow[ing] the polluted Java market." http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/f1700/1762.htm
They effectively destroyed the reputation of Java Applets. Applets work perfectly fine now that microsoft has stopped intentionally ruining the user experience.
I'd choose Java Applets over Flash if you need parallelism, as Java supports multiple threads and flash does not.
Java applets start much slower than Flash as the complete Java environment needs to be started. Additionally the download process is slower and more tedious for Java than for Flash.
Basically Flash found the right way to do what Applets tried to do.
Edit: Please note that the Java 6u10 release brought a LOT of new stuff to Java WebStart and Applet-as-application! From http://mindprod.com/jgloss/javawebstart.html:
"Starting in JDK 1.6.0_10, Java Web Start can also distribute Applets. They run in an independent window that can be dragged and resized. The Applet code is not downloaded each time, but only when the code changes. "
I have not tried this myself, but hopefully this will result in new life to Applets as you are not restricted anymore to the "window in browser page" paradigm.
My personal opinion is that Flash is superior for really quick and dirty functionality, like animating images and providing audio on a website, and from a business perspective it's usually a better investment for a lot of interactive firms because their designers can crank out fairly professional dynamic interactive flash pieces faster than it would take for someone to hand-code something with a lot more flexibility.
But with the rising mobile market I think people are starting to be a little more open-minded about silverlight and javaFX, especially as the IDEs for these have evolved.
In my personal opinion, I'm getting old and cynical and hate having to pay for constant updates to Adobe's Creative Suite, and have slowly transitioned into more of a developer than a designer, so my vote always goes to the open-source solutions, and since I develop in Java I have a JRE platform instance running most of the time. But I agree with Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen that the recent changes in Java are potentially game-changing, and we'll see some drastic changes in the market soon.
I think the coupling of Flash with Flex makes this option as attractive for developers as for designers. ActionScript is ECMAscript compliant, and can be used like a "real" programming language. Moreover, this is also open source currently, though Adobe still charges for their Flex Builder IDE (based on Eclipse).
Ultimately, I think it comes down to penetration. The reason there are so many Windows applications is not because Windows is such a cool development environment. It's because that's where developers can sell the most software. Similarly, the main consideration for Web applications is browser compatibility. I think Flash/Flex still wins this currently, though the situation may change.
Note that Adobe tried to compete with Flash, but ultimately gave up and bought Macromedia. Now Microsoft is trying to compete. We'll see.
Applets are a dead option as RIA compared to flash / silverlight today. even JavaFx, it's not a good path for a new RIA.
but, I know some cool applets out there like the one used in TopCoder.com competetion arena.
If I'm not mistaken, I believe RuneScape is a Java applet.
Java as a RIA has come a long way in the past couple of years. It doesn't have quite the market penetration that Flash does (some site that I don't recall showed Flash @ 99%, Java @ 91%), but it is still a viable option. If you are looking at creating "cool" effects with applets, there are a few APIs you can play with: PulpCore, jME (Java Monkey Engine)...
Java as a RIA is definitely not dead.
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Sorry about the lack of links. This post made me want to sign up so I could respond and new users can only post one link, so I chose the best one.
Try PlanMieszkania.pl - it's a java applet where you can draw floor plan. This is a beta version with opengl (jogl) rendering. To display 3d window click on the last icon in the toolbar (small tv).