I think the "move applications onto the network" idea basically killed Java on the desktop and relegated it to a backend only language. It wasn't a bad idea, bu

I think the "move applications onto the network" idea basically killed Java on the desktop and relegated it to a backend only language. It wasn't a bad idea, but it was too early. Because of the focus on network distribution, the two main ways to distribute desktop Java software were Java WebStart (lengthy start-up times on early 2000s internet speeds, integrated poorly with your OS) and applets (only viable for corporate environments where the IT department had control over the whole network and all the clients on it due to security problems, no integration with your OS). If you had to distribute software that ran locally, you had to roll your own solution or buy some third-party tool since Sun didn't have anything that made this easy.