"Adobe Flex Rules, Everything Else Drools" - Good summary, in fact, I think I'll start using it from now on.

Yakov might be biased, for he's biased for a reason: "Adobe Flex Rules, Everything Else Drools". lol

You see Yakov, like myself, has probably used "everything else" AND Flex, and decided that Flex is the best alternative out there for serious RIAs.

Complaining about how "slow" Flex must be because it runs in the Flash VM makes me think you haven't used Flex much. Maybe you haven't even tried it, because your own personal biases have prevented you from moving away from your current outdated tecnology of choice?

So I guess the Ahax world of hacks, dozens of crappy bug-infested "frameworks", and cross browser incompatibilities is "the future of RIA" -- really? Next time Gmail screws up and I have to reload the page, or I get stupid error dialog popups every 15 seconds because of comm problems from security measures, I'll try and think about that.

Or perhaps, as you have hinted, you feel that Sun has the answer to RIA... it's not as if they already tried with Applets -- and FAILED miserably. Well, the jury is still out on JavaFX, but honestly it's probably just too late in the game now. And really it just feels like a (poor) attempt to compete in the market.

Poor Flash performance huh?

Flex runs on Flash 9, which:

-Has JIT compilation...just like Java. Heh, of course Swing and Java don't have THAT "problem", right? ;)

-Is *much* faster than Flash 8; a great deal of performance enhancements were done for 9

By the way - can your Ahax/Swing app be moved from a client based app to a web based app within a few minutes? (Or web to client?) Using Adobe AIR (Apollo) I've done this. Have fun with those Ajax hacks, and playing with that crummy Swing API. (Don't you just love creating those Swing custom look and feels? Crap loads of deprecated code? Event dispatch thread pains in the ass? "Cooperative" layout managers? So much fun!!!)

I'll just be over here working in Flex. For the first time in many years, I'm actually having a good time doing software development again - and with MUCH more productivity than with Swing or Ahax.

Being an experienced Java developer, and having spent the last two months writing Flex apps, I think you miss Mr. Fain's points on every level. I'm guessing this is because you have only been a developer for a few years.

Initially, the Flex expense is insignificant, unless you're a 16 year old coding off your Dad's computer. C'mon, the price for Flex is CHEAP!

The expense is not with the Flex, but, in the time (and consulting $) that someone is going to have to pay to build a Swing app. To build anything other than a few buttons and some actual business logic is just not practical.

Regarding Javascript, the point is that Ajax relies on the CLIENT's Javascript, which, if you've done any Ajax development of any level of complexity, you'd you're always dealing in "lowest common denominator" support of Javascript, and, even then, it's a tossup. Flex has AS3 script, but, the interpreter is ALWAYS tested and consistent. But, as with any software, if there are issues, you can include in your Flex app the minimum Flash player. Try doing that with IE/FF/Safari.

Regarding your "corporate users" complaining about memory issues, that's the developer's fault. Flex Builder comes with a memory profiling tool (not sure if Netbeans does) that allows this to be monitored and tuned. And, if the Flex app is running into memory issues, it's probably an app that would never even be attempted in the Swing world!

The article is basically 'Flex rules, everything else drools'. It goes on and on about the good things about Flex, while giving only cursory coverage of Flex drawbacks. Meanwhile, it's just the opposite regarding the other technologies, going on and on about drawbacks, and giving only cursory coverage of advantages.