The RIA strategy means a consumer push

Sun plans to promote JavaFX for both consumer and enterprise apps in an effort to get Java out of the enterprise pigeonhole it has long been in. Content and services must not be constrained to the enterprise but have to spread to consumer applications, too, said Rich Green, Sun's executive vice president of software. "Information is now crossing the moat, escaping the castle," he said.

Sun's consumer focus also was evident in a celebrity appearance by rocker Neil Young, who came onstage to promote his Blu-ray based music catalog. Blu-ray features Java.

The jury remains out

Whether JavaFX can be a major player remains to be seen, said analyst Michael Cote of RedMonk. "We have to wait for it to come out first and then we'll check it out," Cote said. "They're coming from pretty far behind."

While Sun can be commended for giving users a choice in the rich Internet application space, more attention should be paid to enabling Java to work very well with existing technologies, said Rod Johnson, CEO of SpringSource and founder of the popular Spring Framework for Java development. "I do think Flex is very entrenched and I certainly think there should be more emphasis probably from Sun and also vendors like us in working with Adobe technologies," he said.