Why do applets have such a low adoption level? [closed]

Answer 1

Back in the 1990s when Sun introduced applets to the world, the JVM was slow, and applets were slower. Think "wait fifteen minutes for it to finish loading" slow.

Slow technologies are dead technologies. Speed wasn't the only advantage that Flash and its ilk had over Java applets, but it was a major contributor to their decline.

Answer 2

One point everyone seems to be forgetting: Originally Flash had a very designer oriented work-flow, so many graphical designers jumped on board and made cool looking stuff, which Internet-users found fun, so they would download Flash, and the community grew.

Java Applets on the other hand were targeted at programmers and enterprises, and that was fine, but boring to the average user. And on-top of that the script kiddies of the time (myself included) made Applets that leaked resources and/or froze the browser, and even other more skilled kiddies used the powers of Applets to create traps, and harmful websites, so most Internet users wouldn't enable Applets.

So in the end it was probably the target developers (graphical designers vs. programmers) of each platform that caused the issues.

Answer 3

Java was greatly disadvantaged simply because it was complicated to download and install for common users.

Potential users would be offered multiple versions of the Java package, including SDK's and so on. That would scare off most users who just wanted to quickly view a simple applet.

Java has fixed this and now java.com has a one-click plugin download. Flash had this from the start, and I wouldn't be surprised it contributed for part of it's success.

Answer 4

Java vs Flash then and now:

Then:

1. Flash had a single-click installer that took 2 minutes to download and run. Java had an installer that took 10 minutes to download and run.
2. Flash applications loaded in less than a second. Java applets took 10 seconds.
3. Flash applications tended to be self-contained and would "just work". Java applets tend to refer to external resources. Broken links were frequent and the applet engine was plagued by stability problems that could sometimes take down the entire browser.
4. Flash adoption was at all-time high because it shipped with Windows. Java did not.

Now:

1. Sun rolled out a single-click installer called Java Kernel that takes 2 minutes to download and run.
2. Java6 update 12 loads applets in under a second.
3. Java applets now run in a separate process than the browser and the engine has been rewritten from the ground up. Stability issues are a thing of the past. Unfortunately, the web is still full of old applets containing broken links.
4. Java ships standard with most new computers. Java adoption rates vary from 70% - 90% depending on who you talk to. Feel free to measure your own website.

The one big difference that remains is that Flash has better artist-oriented tools than Java does. That being said, there is a huge range of software that you can write easier and more efficiently in Java than in Flash. Java is a far more mature and scalable platform. You will see many people using Flash for ad banners, but far more people using Java for full-fledged applications or games. For example, compare 3D rendering support in Java versus Flash.