Java FX -- which is geared to make it easier to build flashy Web sites and Java desktop applications -- is ready to take on Adobe Systems' Flash and Microsoft's Silverlight software, according to Sun Microsystem's chief executive.
Jonathan Schwartz said at a news conference that Sun's new scripting language announced on Tuesday at the JavaOne trade show in the US stands out from those competitors, despite not being released as a final product.
Java is already used on the servers that power many Internet sites and on the devices people use to tap into those systems, and businesses need that connection, Schwartz said.
"We're focused on connecting business systems with people," Schwartz said. "If you're a bank, you want to reach customers on set-top boxes, car navigation systems, mobile phones. You want to reach them with your business systems to update them with their savings (account details) or credit card bill. What's happening on the Internet today is all these systems are being connected to one another."
Rich Green, Sun's executive vice president for software, said he believes the battle has just begun. "We're just seeing early build-out phases ... It's just the beginning, and we have a great shot."
Java FX programs run using standard Java software, but it employs a scripting language to try to make writing Java applications easier, Green said.
"We heard from a lot of people that (they) can do anything with Java. It just takes such a long time -- it requires professional coding techniques and a very deep understanding," Green said.
"Java FX Script is going to bring Java to creative professionals -- to orders of magnitude more contributors. It's no longer the domain of object-oriented programmers."
The Flash runtime is sleek and loads seamlessly when a page using flash loads, but the Java Runtime takes many seconds to load and is a huge resource hog. To compete with flash, Sun needs to streamline the JRE, not just offer a new Java "lite".