Java beta tester here. If you haven't seen SD2.0/SFX yet,
look at Joe's link.
I've heard it most frequently referred to as SFX. For debugging purposes it's better than SmartDashboard1.0: the record functionality, more widgets, being able to use (JavaFX, not browser) CSS to customize widgets, and multiple tabs (e.g. for SmartDashboard and for LiveWindow) make viewing data easier.
Yes, we think it'll speed up debugging, if not be more aesthetically pleasing on the Driver Station (if we choose to use it there).
The record/playback functionality. We can play back data at any time. Something suggested by Dan Lavin on 694 was collecting data in teleop and using it for autonomous, which I know some teams have attempted but might be easier this year with the addition of record/playback.
There were one or two nonfunctioning buttons (like the data source button) on the interface, and we had to run SFX from terminal
to get some other functions working. Since this was beta, though, it'll probably be fixed by build season. It also may have been an error just on our platform, we only tested SFX on one laptop running Windows 7.
Beyond using CSS to customize widgets, I don't know anyone who attempted to make a custom widget specifically for SFX. ScreenSteps links to a
JavaFX CSS reference page and that's all.
I'm not able to answer this, we didn't do any vision processing and I can't recall or find documentation on camera viewing in SFX.
Our setup was an HP Probook 4540s, so I can't answer this either, sorry.
Seems to be - at one point we had it running for about 45 minutes, so unlike SmartDashboard 1.0 it doesn't crash after a brief period of time.
Java 7 is required:
"The new dashboard requires a current version of Oracle Java 7 (minimum release 7u6) to be installed on your system to get JavaFX."
Hope that helped.