[clug] Why isn't Java popular on the Linux Desktop?

steve jenkin sjenkin at canb.auug.org.au
Tue Jul 14 00:18:36 MDT 2009


Nathan O'Sullivan wrote on 10/7/09 12:13 PM:
> Mono has been in the news a bit recently, and I don't want to rehash
> that topic.
> 
> I'm not involved in the Java world, but perhaps someone here is. Why do
> you think Java has not taken off for Linux Desktop apps? What needs to
> happen for it to do so?


Nathan,

I think you've come up with a *great* question, demonstrated by the
activity & length of the thread. Well Done!

What surprised me, in my ignorance, is the apparent lack of scripting
languages used to write GUI-apps in the Linux/X-11 world. [We heard from
one person with a significant Perl codebase]

Please correct me if wrong.

This compares poorly with the command line & web-server environments -
Perl, Python, PHP, Ruby, Java & much more... (even the humble 'shell').



The baseline/reference is Tcl/Tk from 1988/1990.
A scripting language that was designed to also be used for GUI-apps.



Since then, we've had at least Gnome/GTK and KDE/Qt arrive in the Posix
world. Entirely new things built from scratch.

So how did 'we' (the FOSS community) skip developing
descendants/competitors to Tcl/Tk???

Or is it "Javascript"/ECMAScript??
[IIRC, Thunderbird is extended with Javascript]




Just to demonstrate the depth & breadth of my ignorance,
 what 'scripting' languages are used in the Microsoft world
 to write GUI-Apps?

Does "Visual Basic" qualify?
"Windows Power Shell" does amazing stuff (I'm told), but I don't know if
it enables/supports GUI-Apps.

 regards
s
-- 
Steve Jenkin, Info Tech, Systems and Design Specialist.
0412 786 915 (+61 412 786 915)
PO Box 48, Kippax ACT 2615, AUSTRALIA

sjenkin at canb.auug.org.au http://members.tip.net.au/~sjenkin


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