I work a lot with server-side Java, but there is NO WAY I would advocate using Java in the browser.
We use it internally here. We use HP servers with ILO licensed, and we access the ILO with JVM or .NET.
I was one of the earliest adopters of Java in the world outside of Sun Microsystems, amazed by the active content that could be added to a web page using the JVM. It saddens me that as of several years ago, I make exactly the same recommendation as above.
I would echo that remark. Java has been hyped from the beginning as the language of the web when in fact it really is not. It is true that when it was first released, Java was leaps and bounds above C++ and some of the other options out there for web programming which at that time was fairly new. There are now other, better options, designed for programming the web and web browsers. Java is a great server-side language but not so good for the web and browsers.