JavaFX vs Adobe AIR

Adobe AIR finally has a competitor and it's called JavaFX. JavaFX will feature tools and SDKs (Software Development Kits), that will allow developers to create RIA applications in ways that are similar to Flex and AIR. It will also include an HTML component that is based on the open source webkit. This component will allow developers to render HTML and CSS content inside a JavaFX application.

JavaFX use a declarative scripting language called JavaFX script, which appears vey simple and easy to use but yet very powerful enough to create a complex RIA application. I like what I've seen in JavaFX Script and would love to see some of its features added to languages like JavaScript and ActionScript but that might not be anytime soon.

Even though JavaFX script looks nice and easy to use I think I am going to stick with Adobe AIR for a couple of reasons:

• Adobe AIR supports Ajax out of the box – This means that a web developer can build a full-blown desktop application using only the AIR runtime!
  
  
• Air provides a secure sandbox for application developers – I sometimes get the feeling that Adobe is very serious about the AIR security model and that's one thing that I love about it.
  
  
• Built-in support for Native Windows, Menus and System Tray.

What needs to be improved in AIR:

• Resource usage and memory management – This will most likely be improved in the up coming 1.5 or 2.0 release.
  
  
• Faster rendering speed for Flex/Flash apps and animations - I can't see why Silverlight (CLR) should be able to render vectors twice as fast when compared to flash. See the Bubblemark Render Test.
  
  
• Support for Threads – It would be nice if AJAX developers could spawn a new thread to collect data while the main application is running. Now that would be cool!

Overall Adobe AIR is a great product and I would encourage every web developer to check it out and see how easy it is to start creating some awesome AJAX Desktop applications. JavaFX is also looking great but we just have to wait and see what features will make it into the final release.

Online Resources
Adobe AIR Website
JavaFX Website