Do beautiful, user-friendly Java applets exist? [closed]

Question

When I use Java applets, they tend to be slow, don't integrate very well with the browser environment and often require a few click throughs ("No, I don't want to give this unsigned application free reign of my hard disk").

So, I'm curious.

Are these problems insurmountable? Are there Java applets out there which integrate well with the browser experience (in, for example, the way a well-designed Flash application does?) Can you point out any examples of really "nice" Java applets?

I'm asking this because I want to know if I should be taking a more serious look at Java-in-the-browser, or if Flash will remain dominant for the foreseeable future.

Edit: Unintentional flame bait has been removed. Sorry for any offence caused.

Answer 1

The Facebook asynchronous image uploader is a Java applet.

Update: Apparently not developed in house at Facebook. This seems to be the product.

Amendment: Now that the question has been updated to be a bit more concise, I thought I'd add more to this answer.

This kind of problem, a mass image uploader (in this case), is the kind perfectly solved by a Java applet. Why?

1. It uses native UI elements, so users are not confused, or have to learn a new interface.
2. It can save massive amounts of bandwidth and overhead, because image transformations, such as resizing and cropping, can take place on the client side, rather than the server.
3. Write once, deploy everywhere (almost, sorta).