We are entering an era of Rich Internet Applications (RIA) and enhancing the user experience of consumers of the services becomes an important part in designing and implementing distributed applications. But if you decide to develop rich clients, you’ll be facing the dilemma of which way to go: remain with tried and true Java on the client or experiment with such newcomers as AJAX, Flex, Silverlight, or recently released JavaFX? While the Internet brings a lot of noise where “it’s cool” is the most popular definition, this presentation is an overview of what’s out there on the enterprise RIA market. We’ll talk about the pros and cons of using various techniques and technologies for the development of the front end for complex distributed systems.