Slashdot Log In
Sun Releases JavaFX
Posted by
timothy
on Thursday December 04, @05:50PM
from the does-it-roll-off-the-tongue-or-not dept.
from the does-it-roll-off-the-tongue-or-not dept.
ink writes "Sun released JavaFX 1.0 today, in a bid to take on Adobe's Flash and Microsoft's Silverlight technologies. It is Sun's first Java release to include standardized, cross-platform audio and video playback code (in the form of On2 licensed codecs). The lack of a Linux or Solaris release is a notable absence. The development kit currently consists of the base run-time, a NetBeans/Eclipse plug-in and a set of artifact exporters for Adobe CS 3&4." An anonymous reader adds a link to several tutorials accompanying the new release.
Related Stories
[+]
Developers: Silverlight 2.0 Released 164 comments
rfernand79 writes "Via Scott Guthrie's Blog for Microsoft, we find out that Silverlight 2.0 has been released. The blog post notes some interesting statistics, including the magnitude of video streamed during the Olympics and the Democratic National Convention (both using Silverlight). 'Hello Worlds' and educational links are included in the post."
[+]
Silverlight On the Way To Linux 475 comments
Afforess writes "For the past two years Microsoft and Novell have been working on the 'Moonlight' project. It is a runtime library for websites that run Silverlight. It should allow PCs running Linux to view sites that use Siverlight. Betanews reports 'In the next stage of what has turned out to be a more successful project than even its creators envisioned, the public beta of Moonlight — a runtime library for Linux supporting sites that expect Silverlight — is expected within days.' Moonlight 2.0 is already in the works."
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Full
Abbreviated
Hidden
Loading... please wait.
Probably Also Contending with OpenLaszlo (Score:5, Informative)
Well, I will throw out there a heads up to folks about OpenLaszlo [openlaszlo.org] which is the "run-anywhere, no-lock-in rich Internet platform. Period."
Unfortunately it still has a massive adoption curve ahead of it so maybe there's no reason to list it as a contender. While there are neat demos [openlaszlo.org], a few companies have employed it: Wal-Mart, Pandora even MSN's music service.
*sigh* I wonder if this means Sun is going to pull out of Orbit [slashdot.org] and come up with some J2ME version of JavaFX?
Like always, I welcome the competition, diversity and options this brings while I cringe at the thought of yet another schism in the open source community.
Reply to This
Re:Probably Also Contending with OpenLaszlo (Score:4, Informative)
Well, I will throw out there a heads up to folks about OpenLaszlo [openlaszlo.org] which is the "run-anywhere, no-lock-in rich Internet platform. Period."
That's not entirely true. OpenLaszlo relies on Flash to display video, and Flash is not a no-lock-in platform. You cannot redistribute Flash, or use it in a whole host of applications without licensing it from Adobe.
Reply to This
Parent
Re:Probably Also Contending with OpenLaszlo (Score:5, Informative)
Reply to This
Parent
Re:Probably Also Contending with OpenLaszlo (Score:5, Insightful)
OpenLaszlo compiles to either flash or DHTML. Its not a Flash lock-in.
I'd be surprised if it were possible to display streaming video in just DHTML.
Reply to This
Parent
Re:Probably Also Contending with OpenLaszlo (Score:5, Funny)
well, with html 5 we all will have the video tag [w3schools.com] so there's a solution in sight - hopefully!
Reply to This
Parent
Re:Probably Also Contending with OpenLaszlo (Score:4, Informative)
Huh? You can't redistribute any application without a license unless it's public domain. That's copyright. GPL is a distribution license.
As far as Adobe's Flash, they have an easy website form to obtain a standard redistribution license:
http://www.adobe.com/products/players/fpsh_distribution1.html [adobe.com]
It's suitable for distributing the player on installation media, for distributing the player on a whole network, or for distributing with other software through a website you manage. It pretty much covers the bases for intended uses of Flash Player for an end-user.
Reply to This
Parent
JavaFX on Android (Score:5, Insightful)
What I'd really like to see is JavaFX running on Android. I saw a presentation from Java One where it showed a JavaFX app running on Android. Has anyone been able to duplicate this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYy4j9x2Mi4 [youtube.com]
I've played around with JavaFX and it seems pretty nice. I've been able to write small widgets with it. Whether it can take on Silverlight and Flash still remains to be seem. What's awesome is that JavaFX has the support of Java's rich API and 3rd-party libraries (you can easily import them into a JavaFX program).
Also if JavaFX apps can run properly on Android or the iPhone, I think that would also help it be more successful.
Reply to This
Parent
Not really, no. (Score:4, Informative)
Laszlo is a Generator for a few things - which also include Flash, nonetheless. Much like the old Macromedia Flash Generator, the Ming Libraries or the Macromedia Laszlo Rippoff 'Flex'.
JavaFX on the other hand is an all-out leveraging of the Java VM for RIAs, something Laszlo can't offer. It's its own VM (naturally) plus a toolkit for building content and applications. While there are overlaps between the two, JavaFX is clearly aimed at Flash - the biggest advancement being a much more streamlines deployment of the Java VM (I just installed it with a sinlge click of a mouse, supported by some nifty Ajax widget that streamlined the process even more).
And, contrary to Silverlight, Java actually has a chance to dethrone Flash, as it is the most mature cross plattform available, despite Flash being the most widespread plattform in general. I'm really interested in how this will play out. ... And am downloading the free JavaFX IDE as I'm typing this. If it doesn't get in my way building RIAs, I will probably never purchase a Flash IDE licence again.
Reply to This
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
The big problem with JavaFX is that, apparently, it requires a full Java VM on the client to work. This is about 15Mb to download. For comparison, Silverlight 2.0 is ~4Mb, and Flash is less than 1Mb. And yes, it is a big deal. Today, for anything other than Flash, you have to assume that the client won't have the plugin/runtime installed by default, so the download has to be as small as possible.
Re:Not really, no. (Score:5, Informative)
The download for Java *is* as small as possible. If you go to Sun's download page and select the "Windows Kernel Installation", the installer is 0.20 MB
It then dynamically downloads components from the network as required.
More information about this here [sun.com].
Don't ask me why (I guess it's an experimental feature they're prepping for the Java 7 release) but for the time being you have to access it via Sun's developer site [sun.com] rather than the consumer java.com one. Hmmm.
Reply to This
Parent
SO confusing.. (Score:5, Interesting)
No shockwave for Linux, Flash 64 gets released JUST for Linux, Sun open-sources Java, but now no JavaFX for Linux...
Can't we all just get along? My head is spinning at all the end-user requests for their intarwebs to work correctly. I guess it's just too much to ask for a real, open standard that just works (like...umm...html?)
Reply to This
Linux support is 'coming' (Score:4, Informative)
From the link:
"We are going to support Linux and Solaris. We love both operating systems....we are actively working on it right now. We have it in our continuous build system."
and
"So why didn't we ship for Linux and Solaris in 1.0 along with Mac & Windows?
Simple. It's not ready yet. Certain features are there but other features are broken or not performing well enough. In particular video and graphics hardware acceleration have historically been tricky to implement properly on Linux and Solaris, as users of native apps for those operating systems know all too well. But we are working on it and will ship it."
Reply to This
Parent
Re:Linux support is 'coming' (Score:5, Insightful)
Linux and Solaris count towards less than 5% of the market. Sun did the smart thing by bringing it to the mass OS market, instead of delaying it. If they delayed it, they'd have lost their window of entry, and maybe lost the market entirely to Adobe AIR.
Reply to This
Parent
JavaFX 1.0 SDK running on Linux (Score:5, Informative)
I was able to get the SDK to run on Linux. Full details here [vivin.net]. Please don't kill my box :)
Reply to This
Parent
Just what the web needs (Score:4, Interesting)
Reply to This
Only no JavaFX for developers (Score:3, Interesting)
Even though it is still a shame,
you CAN view JavaFX used on webpages. It seams to work just like java-applets, only nicer to look at. (Sadly it also has the same slow loading as applets)
Example: http://javafx.com/samples/StopWatch/index.html [javafx.com]
Reply to This
It does work on linux (Score:5, Interesting)
Reply to This
Come back forwards on that reversal again...? (Score:5, Funny)
So if we have an absence of a lack, does that mean there is a Linux and/or Solaris release? :-P
And yes, I don't think I'm not being overly pedantic in noting the presence of an absence of a lack of internal bouyancy in the summary, since that's a term whose inapplicability wouldn't be not out of place in this sentence.
Reply to This
Holy Halleluja! Unbelievable! (Score:5, Insightful)
They've done it! They have *finally* done it. Beyond all hype, potential vaporware and marketing bullcrap they have - for once - actually pulled through with RIAs. People this is the first time in history that Sun has actually pulled through with implementing a piece of Java in a form that Java was initially meant for: A cross plattform rich & powerfull client enviroment. Finally Java and its VM have stepped up and entered the ring with Flash!
Only intially releasing for OS X and Windows is a large downside, as it will get negative votes from opinion leaders in the field, but the simple fact that they pulled through and didn't stop at 20% with some half-assed crappy Java Media Framework or some other piece of sh*t they've released ever since Flash took the helm at rich clients 10 years ago is a very big supprising plus!!! And the release-website [javafx.com] (why the f*ck isn't this, the most important prime sorce even linked in the GP metaarticle???) doesn't even look like total crap.
If they actually manage to pull through with a broad parallel release policy for this in the near future, manage to reduce JFX deployment to zero-fuss Flash-style and release the java-based FOSS tools and IDEs for JFX as announced a year ago, we will - for the first time in the history of the web - see a true competitor to Flash rise. This is good news in so many ways I can't even describe. If Sun plays its cards right and continues applying common sense and not screwing around this time and Adobe isn't on its toes, we will have a fully free open source rich client platform in just a few years and Flash will be history. Yay! Go, Sun, go!
I can't tell you how much I and many other professional Flash developers have waited for this moment for the last 8 years.
Reply to This
Sun are so...enterprise (Score:3, Interesting)
button to find out."
Combine that with the 2nd-tier graphic design and interactivity going on all over the place, and it feels sort of like something that a) isn't going to win over the designer crowd and b) WHY on earth would Linux fans look at this as anything other than a snub? Sigh. (Anyway, I've downloaded all three packages, and I'll give it a go...)
Reply to This
Fail! (Score:3, Informative)
I tried the demo over at javafx.com and I got two security warnings (they use self-signed certificates) and one popup with a EULA. And the demo have some serious usability and display issues.
I love Java and it pays my bills but Sun really have a long way to go to reach the acceptance level of Flash.
Reply to This
Re:sorry (Score:5, Informative)
On2 [wikipedia.org] is the company that provides the video/audio codecs for video in the Flash plugin. (i.e. The technology used by sites like Youtube.) The inclusion of these codecs in JavaFX means that JavaFX will be able to play movies intended for a Flash player.
In other words, JavaFX is a scripting language for graphics. Similar in principle to Flash. The download gives developers the necessary libraries and viewers to develop JavaFX code. (Including plugins for your favorite IDE.) Not sure what the Adobe CS stuff is about.
Reply to This
Parent
Re:Existing plugin (Score:5, Informative)
It is. This is really a set of libraries on top of the existing Java runtime that support the JavaFX scripting framework.
I'm sure they will once the technology has been shaken out a bit. Sun tends to be cautious about making changes to the core APIs.
Reply to This
Parent
Re:Flash and Silverlight the target? (Score:5, Informative)
Android - Mobile phone stack, making heavy use of Java technology. While Sun's not directly involved, Jonathan Schwartz has spoken highly of it.
JavaFX - Web multimedia/interactivity stack, similar to Flash and Silverlight.
The two are not competitors. Sun is not pushing JavaFX to compete with Android any more than Microsoft is pushing Silverlight to destroy Windows CE.
Reply to This
Parent
Re:Flash and Silverlight the target? (Score:5, Informative)
Reply to This
Parent