For those of you who know me, I dabbled a bit in the dark side, yes, I did some Java development. I even have a cert, doesn't proof very much I'm afraid. But I think I can speak with some experience about the topic at hand.
From the article, I LOVE the quote from the very first paragraph! "Java as a client-side platform is pretty clearly a failure." DOH! HAHAHAHAHA LOL AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
I have to ask you, when was the LAST time you loaded up ANYTHING that used Java? And those *.jsp page don't count. No, I mean as a thick client application? Really......when was the last time? If you're an Oracle developer, ok, then chances are you ran PL/SQL Developer which is a Java tool. Uh yyyyyyyyaaaaaaaaaaaa, and how do you LIKE that tool? On my very current, memory laden, BIG hard drive, it is DOG slow, nearly unusable. Actually I don't! I use a very cool tool my boss (SG) developed which performs MUCH faster, does the job, and coincidently is writtenin C#!
Back to the article and the topic, really, the only use for Java on your computer is if you're using Open Office IMHO. And even then........ DOH! Hey man, I'm just say'n.
Resources
ReadWriteWeb: Who Needs Java? Probably Not You (Mike Melanson)