We've been trying launching the app in pure javafx mode and giving the preloader a go like this:

With the default preloader:

   <jfx:javafx-desc width="800" height="600" main-class="$mainClass" name="com.anahata.jobtracking.ui.jfx.Main" >
        <fx:param name="javafx.default.preloader.stylesheet"
                   value="/jobtracking/css/preloader.css"/>
    </jfx:javafx-desc>

Vs Basic jnlp old style launch

<application-desc main-class="com.anahata.jobtracking.ui.jfx.Main" />

With jfx:javafx-desc

- We get two preloaders: the usual javaws swing preloader (download, verifying, etc....) and then nothing and then the javafx preloader
- There are two java/jws processes, the first one with the normal swing based javaws console which seems to launch a second one with the JavaFX console
- The application takes around about 2x longer to startup.
- Things like Weld initialization go from taking 10 seconds to taking 17 when launching in pure javafx mode.
- Things like getClass().getResource("xxx.properties") try to load resources from http://serer:8080/app/webstart/lib/com/xxx/xxx.properties if the resource is not present on the jar and use a different user-agent (Mozilla) when performing the HTTP requests.
- Overall application startup from clicking the desktop icon to seeing the main application stage visible take 2x longer (30 seconds to 60 seconds).