[ido]

    If it weren't for JS, you'd be writing Java 
    applets while wanting to shoot your brains 
    out.

Actually java applets these days are quite pleasant to write once you learn about the few (not even that many) quirks they have.

It's mostly the UX on some platforms that sucks about them, e.g. mac os x's java plugin lags behind the windows/linux plugin from sun/oracle & combined with firefox make applets freeze your browser for a couple of seconds upon startup. If you use chrome on windows or linux applets have no detectable lag.

A few years ago before plugin2 on windows & linux and before we had chrome they sucked everywhere, which is probably the source for all or most of the applets hate.