Java applets may yet fulfill their original promise. Demand for a richer Web GUI is growing, and no other technology on the horizon offers Java’s cross-platform, cross-browser portability.

The Java buzz is intense. And yet when you look at the Web applications that people actually use every day to do their work, you invariably find that there are no Java applets in the mix.

Whatever the reason the potential of using Java applets to build the GUI interface for web applications tends to be overlooked.

Another piece of old, insecure web infrastructure is about to be killed off. Oracle says that it's discontinuing its Java browser plugin starting with the next big release of the programming ...