Perhaps the strongest positive note for the future of Java was the announcement that a format for digitally signed Java applets was finally agreed upon by Sun, Microsoft, and the W3C, allowing a level of granularity of applet security acceptance based on the certificates that sign the applet.
The relative levels of Java - 300k, JavaScript - 8k, and Tcl - 30k code development were interesting.
Microsoft assured that portability with COM, C++ would be available, but the audience was not reassured.
Web market model is a totally new paradigm VS shrink-wrap, to Java's benefit. $3-5k/seat/year upgrade costs are avoided with Java/Cona Virtual Machine.
Sun, Oracle, Novell, Apple, IBM, and Microsoft have all signed up to support Java at the Operating System level.