Java is also a programming language like VB, VB.Net, C, C++. So you can make any applications like MS-Word, Excel, Power-Point in Java. The main advantage of java applications is they are platform independant. Means you can run them on any operating systems. MS-Word, Excel etc can run only on Windows OS. But Java Applications are sligtly slower then the application developed on Microsoft Platform like VB.Net, VB etc.
But to make an operating system you cannot use Java. Because Java is made for application programming not for system programming. For operating Systems you need lot of System Programming. C and C++ are the best language for system programming. So, to develop Operating Systems C, C++ are widely used. But only C and C++ are still not enough to make an OS. You also need Assembly Level programming but Java cannot be used to develop an OS.
AJAX stands for Asynchronous JavaScript And XML. It can be used for online applications. GMail and Google Pages uses AJAX. Now AJAX is also used in Beta version of Yahoo Mail.
To know about AJAX, you have to understand the general procedure of web pages.
Consider a web page containing a form which accepts the data of user information like first name, last name, address etc. and store it to the database and then after display a message like "Thank you for submitting your information..."
Now you fill up the data and click on the submit button. Now the following procedure occurs
1) Your data is sent to the web server.
2) Data is stored in the database.
3) After data is stored, web server gives back a web page containing a message like "Thank you for submitting your information..."
4) Your web browser accepts the response from web server and display the page.
Here, after clicking on submit button you have to wait until the data is stored and a new page is displayed.
But consider the example of Google Pages. In google pages during saving your page, the page is not refreshed. You can keep your editing page while your page is being saved. This happens because of AJAX.
With AJAX you can receive and send data from web server without refreshing the whole page.
To learn about AJAX, follow the link
http://www.w3schools.com/ajax/default.asp
This can give you a basic idea of AJAX.