I will be using Java 6, because even though some of the faults outlined here are true the language and platform as a whole are improving significantly.
One thing mentioned here is that Sun has dropped support for important things - I agree. JavaCOMM is buggy and I had to drop using it and write my own JNI bindings for Windows to access the serial port. JMF had tremendous potential, but it was never finished and fixed properly.
Sun has made efforts to improve Java on the desktop, but how can Java programs truly compete when there is no access to modems/fax devices, scanners, any USB or IEEE1394 devices, cameras, MP3 players, CD/DVD burners, etc. ? (Not to mention that there still seem to be significant issues with printing.)
The JOGL project has given us access to modern graphics hardware - that's a positive step. But it is still very difficult to do things like Apple's iLife package in Java. Hmm... imagine a cross-platform iLife clone in Java... The office suites are already doable and done in Java (e.g. ThinkFree) but there is still quite a bit missing. |
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