Wouldn’t it be cool if …

• You could write a Java application that could run, without change, on cell phones, on TV set-top boxes, and on laptop and desktop computers?

• A Java applet could start up just as quickly as a similar Flash application, and have comparable responsiveness?

• A Java application could start up just as quickly as a similar application written in C/C++, and have a comparable memory footprint?

• You could publish a large Java application on your web site in such a way that if an end-user’s PC or Mac doesn’t yet have a Java runtime environment (JRE) installed then it first downloads just those parts of the JRE that are needed to run your application—rather than the entire thing—and then downloads just those parts of your application that are needed to start it up—rather than the entire thing—and then starts your application while the rest of the JRE and the rest of your application are trickle-downloaded and installed in the background?

• You could install a Java application on Linux or Solaris via the usual rpm, yum, apt-get, or pkg commands in such a way that any required Java libraries, as well as the required components of the Java runtime environment itself, would also be installed—or upgraded—if necessary?

Hey—wouldn’t it?