Unfortunately, I had to demonstrate how to install JDK SE 6 under Windows. I needed it for the book. After spending an hour trying, I decided to take a break and recorded a screencast showing how a process that had to be a one-click deal was responding to my attempts to install Oracle ‘s software.

I agree, I ‘m a little spoiled by the ease of installing Adobe ‘s Flash Player and AIR. I was ready to do some dances and answer 10 questions while installing Java. But things got worse. I ‘ve deleted the previous install of Java SE 6U22 and now it keeps telling me that I already have it, and so far I ‘m not sure how to get out of this situation.

Sun Microsystems had ignored Java on the client for fifteen years. The brave announcements that JavaFX will be THE solution for the client didn ‘t have any substance and three years of “let ‘s pretend we develop a RIA tool ” lead nowhere. And I ‘m not even talking about the technical merits of JavaFX. Who cares what the program can do if it can ‘t be delivered to the client? The clients needs a runtime – at a minimum – JRE. On top of that, it ‘ll need another little something (so far we don ‘t know what) – JavaFX 1.3 is undergoing dramatic changes, and it ‘s not clear how JavaFX 2.0 applications are supposed to be delivered to the consumer. Not to the corporate users whose desktops can be re-imaged by sysadmins with pre-installed JRE, but for a driver from Alabama who happened to run into a Web site that happened to be written in Java or JavaFX? No way.

I know that 100% of Oracle middleware is written in Java. I know that Oracle promises to pay attention to Java on the client. This is not going to work unless some really really serious attention will be paid to achieving SEAMLESS INSTALL OF JRE ON THE CLIENT ‘S computers. And keep in mind that most of the users are still on Windows. Learn from Adobe who know how to install VMs by making just one or two clicks. Yes, I ‘m talking about Flash Player.

Now you can enjoy the 4-minute screencast titled “You already have Java installed. Do you want to reinstall it? ” Meanwhile, I ‘ll may immerse into the exciting world of Windows registry cleaners and Cleanup utilities. No, I ‘d better restore the one month old backup of the Windows VM.