title: Alternatives to Java Web Start?
body: <p>We're having huge issues with Java Web Start in production. We're afraid to release because every time we do, help desk gets calls from 1/3 users getting an <em>"unable to launch"</em> error. It's hard to tell whether it's because of user error, cancellation in the middle of download, poor network connection or anything. But the bottom line is:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>We find it terribly unreliable.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>What are the alternatives for deploying and updating a rich Swing application? Either free or commercial, I'm more interested in features and robustness.</p>
  
  <p>Reliability is key, but I would also like to have the following:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Install once, update automatically from a simple HTTP hosting like JWS</li>
  <li>Differential updates</li>
  <li>Support for multiple configurations (think of 30 instances which may have different versions of the application or different launch parameters - would be nice not to build 30 artifacts each time)</li>
  <li>Win / Mac / Linux support. Hopefully one that does not mean I have to maintain 3 builds for each instance.</li>
  </ul>