Project Harmony, which was formally proposed Friday, aims to write from scratch the software, called Java 2 Standard Edition (J2SE), that is needed to run Java programs on desktop PCs.

But Java as a desktop force shows no signs of making a roaring comeback, and with each hammering-home of the message that it’s an insecure, outdated technology, the odds get a little worse.

It's easy to create a basic Swing desktop UI as the JDK provides everything you need -- no external dependencies are required in a Maven project, for example. Using Swing components instead of AWT ...