Dive into ...

Before I start giving my humble opinion about JavaFX I like to say that I am the type jumping into things and try before I start trying to understand the fundamental things.That's what I did here too. So don't get confused if the things I am saying maybe will vary from post to post. I do it this way because I can find out if the framework is user friendly.
I worked with Java AWT,  Swing and SWT. By far the most powerful was SWT compared to the others which is unfortunately not a part of Java.

• AWT is a part of Java so the motto, program once run everywhere. It is simple but not powerful enough for big projects.
• Swing is cool is a part of Java too but the same goes for Swing too. It has limits. The look and feel is not up to date anymore.
• SWT is the most powerful and adapts to the look and feel of native OS apps. Unfortunately it is not a part of Java. It's developed by the Eclipse Team. Deploying those apps on different OS's can be really big hassle.
• JavaFX is not yet a part of Java but soon. At the moment JavaFX2.2 runs on Linux, Mac OSX and Windows. If you use Eclipse you can install e(fx)clipse plugin or you can use Netbeans. Using SceneBuilder 1.1 makes it easy create UI's in minutes.

I tested my written programs on all three platforms and it was running without problems.  I am really positive impressed. The standard design of the UI looks already professional and the support of CSS scripting to change the look makes everything super comfortable and easy.
So I don't want to talk too much about the stuff JavaFX provides. I decided to give it a chance. :-)