This is silly. The "typical" desktop runs MS Windows, with only a few user processes running at a time. Some of those processes may have a bunch of threads going, but the process count is small. Of course all of those processes share the low-level OS libraries. And guess what: each JVM process shares those OS libraries, too.
The Java standard library does duplicate some of the higher-level OS features, which is the only practical way to achieve cross-platform compatibility. Any cross-platform solution is going to impose some overhead. Of course you can write native iPhone apps with no extra overhead, but then they can't be used by the 95% of mobile device users who have other platforms.
I'm not sure what you mean about code running in server rooms being obscure. That's what drives web applications and network services which are more visible and critical to many of us than our desktop applications.
By the way, anyone who wants to use the JVM for writing desktop applications should take a look at the Eclipse RCP. I haven't had a need to develop for that platform myself, but the results I've seen from other companies look pretty good.
The Java standard library does duplicate some of the higher-level OS features, which is the only practical way to achieve cross-platform compatibility. Any cross-platform solution is going to impose some overhead. Of course you can write native iPhone apps with no extra overhead, but then they can't be used by the 95% of mobile device users who have other platforms.
I'm not sure what you mean about code running in server rooms being obscure. That's what drives web applications and network services which are more visible and critical to many of us than our desktop applications.
By the way, anyone who wants to use the JVM for writing desktop applications should take a look at the Eclipse RCP. I haven't had a need to develop for that platform myself, but the results I've seen from other companies look pretty good.