It’s sort of easy to forget that when Java was released in 1995, the target market that everyone was talking about was the browser. Java was supposed to bring desktop-level interactivity to Web browsers in the form of Java applets; I remember using an applet-based text editor in 1996 or so and thinking “Um, I’m not sure about this.” Anywa,y Free Software Magazine has an analysis of why Java, Flash, and Silverlight failed and AJAX succeeded in this realm. (Hint: Look to the title of the publication for their guess.) Software Development