"You don't have to learn AJAX"

You don't anyway. You pick one of the excellent libraries (including Google's) and learn that, you'd have to learn JavaFX anyway and it's a very small market (don't know but bet there are at least 25 XML config files). There are also a TON of Java server tools that use AJAX and keep Java server-side.

Oracle had a really good lightweight forms tool that used a small Java applet talking to the DOM (I think it's beta name was Cherokee) and binned it because their brain-dead Oracle Apps division didn't want it. Oracle are actually their own biggest customer and if Apps don't want something the rest of us never get it.

So expect to see JavaFX appearing inside the already nasty Oracle Apps suite real soon now. Can't wait.

I love the smell of burning bridges.