Presenters at the appropriately named conference in San Jose, Calif. on Thursday afternoon argued that it does. Billed as "The Conference for Java Desktop Application Developers," the event focuses mostly on Java technologies like Swing, which provides component technology for building Java desktop applications. The Spring Java Web framework and the NetBeans open-source platform for Java also are noted on the agenda.

But the opening keynote pitted desktop technologies including Swing against AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML), the popular technique for building Web applications. Speakers included Ben Galbraith and Dion Almaer, who are cofounders of and producers of the Desktop Matters conference.

They said desktop applications and Web applications are actually becoming more alike.

"We're kind of seeing the Web become more desktoppy and the desktop become more Webby," Almaer said.

Swing and AJAX are moving closer in such aspects as available effects and components support, the speakers argued. Also, hosted versions of desktop applications, such as Microsoft Office systems, are starting to appear. Meanwhile, AJAX applications are "cloning" desktop applications like Zoho Office, Galbraith said.