Oracle Reinstates Free Time Zone Updates For Java 7 61
twofishy writes "The internet has been buzzing this week with the news that Oracle has ceased to provide free time zone updates outside of the standard JDK release cycle. However, at the end of yesterday the firm appeared to have a change of heart. 'We never intended for a support contract to be required to keep JDK 7 up to date. TZUpdater was made unavailable on March 8 as part of the End of Public Updates for JDK 6, and as soon as we learned that this affected JDK 7 users we initiated the process of making it available for JDK 7 again.'"
Re:Just waiting (Score:5, Insightful)
for the first anti-Java rant. Just waitin'....
I have nothing against Java(though the sandbox they use to try to make the JVM safe enough to do web applets in is a total clusterfuck); but this doesn't exactly raise my confidence in Oracle's wise stewardship of the platform...
"So, um, guys, we accidentally deprecated the tool that is required to keep timekeeping functions working properly in our latest JVM release, because we apparently didn't realize that it was still necessary and were just deprecating stuff related to release N-1 more or less at random! Sorry about that. We'll consider checking for interactions next time."
Re:Just waiting (Score:4, Insightful)
Companies make bad decisions all the time. The real question is: would they back off and reinstate the previous state of things? In this case, whether it was intentional or a mistake is less relevant; public backlash prompted them to reconsider (or realize the mistake) and the outcome is eventually positive. Did they lie about what happened? i don't know and frankly I don't care. All I care for is what the outcome is.
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All I care for is what the outcome is.
While getting a desirable outcome is great, there is also something to be said for not having to call out bullshit again and again. Not saying that this situation qualifies, only that in general, the idea of caring about the reason for a decision makes sense.
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Companies make bad decisions all the time. The real question is: would they back off and reinstate the previous state of things? In this case, whether it was intentional or a mistake is less relevant; public backlash prompted them to reconsider (or realize the mistake) and the outcome is eventually positive.
That's great..... So, when will HP reinstate OpenVMS? :)
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You can't just upgrade the JVM on live production server just to update the timezone database. You have to go through rigorous testing to make sure the new JVM behaves correctly for older code. Updating the timezone database is a much simpler concept.
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Actually, against all expectations, IMHO Oracle has done a great job at getting Java back to speed. We have something like regular release dates now, JavaFX has been turned into something exciting and usable, the community is being greatly involved, there is a nice, well-made newsletter, the Javadoc has been given a much needed facelift, security is being taken seriously... stuff is happening. It seems to me that Oracle is investing more resources into Java than Sun ever could.
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Well then Java should suit you just fine. Java never implements compatibility breaking changes in core functionality. This is why we have half-assed generics after all.
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It actually did with JDK6 at least IIRC. java.sql.xx packages changed interfaces to the extent that old code wouldn't compile. Another is the changed NIO in JDK7. Also the JMX code in JDK 1.2 compared with prior releases. Those are the first ones off the top of my head, and yes, those were all components under development, except for the SQL packages. The JMX component is actually interesting because it was first released as an add on library.
And I agree that generics are less than they might have been. I
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See? (Score:5, Insightful)
ORACLE (Score:4, Funny)
One Raging Asshole Called Larry Ellison.
Lehk228 had it spot on. They tried to get away with it, and failed. Unfortunately, they usually get away with it.
Fuck Oracle.
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Lehk228 had it spot on.
symlink: http://developers.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3839675&cid=43945337 [slashdot.org]
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Fuck Oracle.
Fuck O.R.A.C.L.E.?
In other words, Larry Ellison can go fuck himself?
I wouldn't be surprised if he married himself.
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All you people who think Oracle is the embodiment of evil and Larry Ellison is the devil incarnate are... ...absolutely right.
There is a more understandable name for it - psychopathy (renamed to ASPD) - actually many so-called or driven to "leaders" fall into that category.
Nothing new actually - eventually they will die like everyone else and maybe then realize the futility of their efforts - or not...
pissed off (Score:1)
Oracle is really getting on my nerves. Of-course this has been the case for the last 5 years or so, but now it's especially egregious.
Obviously they can't handle Java, they just don't know what to do with it. Suggestion: pull your heads out of your asses and if you can't handle this asset, give it up. Sell it or hand it over to Apache foundation, whatever. The more you DO the worse you LOOK because you are dumbshits.
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Obviously they can't handle Java, they just don't know what to do with it. Suggestion: pull your heads out of your asses and if you can't handle this asset, give it up. Sell it or hand it over to Apache foundation, whatever. The more you DO the worse you LOOK because you are dumbshits.
They don't care about Java, just the underlying patents. The only reason Oracle bought Sun was so they could use their patents to hassle Google and other companies.
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And the patents are useless now. So why not sell Java for somebody that can keep its value, instead of using all their energy to depreciate it?
Updates (Score:5, Interesting)
We never intended for a support contract to be required to keep JDK 7 up to date
Then provide bloody YUM and APT repos for easy upgrading on RedHat, CentOS and Debian based systems. Even Adobe can manage that for the poxy Flash plugin.
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flashplugin-nonfree.deb is actually just a set of wrapper scripts that downloads Flash from Adobe's site, not a proper Flash install package as such. Adobe is so dreadful that they won't even let you download the .msi(for the platform they actually care about) without signing some stupid 'redistribution agreement' and going through a(trivial) approval process to get the magic URL...
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Do they just not like debian? On my laptop:
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See discussion on debian.legal here [debian.org] for detail, but the general gist is that Adobe recently changed their terms; the package you link was released after that change, but debian tends to value stability more than most other Linux distros and therefore does not yet include a version of flash that dates from after the change in licensing terms.
Adobe also grant redistribution permission to named organisations, which may have allowed some Linux distros to include it previously, but debian is unable/reluctant to
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But look at the repo definition:
This isn't redistribution.
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Ah, I see.
Yes, in that case, they just don't like debian. Just like Oracle don't, which is why if you want to run most Oracle server products you really need RHEL or at the very least centos. Same with many other commercial vendors who support Linux (random example, which just happens to be the latest commercial software I acquired [altera.com]).
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http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/distribution3.html [adobe.com]
Thank me later.
Translation... (Score:5, Insightful)
Translation: we bought this thing, but we don't know how it works.
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I work on a project that uses not only java.util.Calendar/java.util.Date, but custom date/time classes to work around the idiosyncrasies of the built-in Calendar/Date classes.
Needless to say, I've told everyone that Calendar/Date classes have to go, along with the custom date/time classes, in favor of JodaTime. 100 usage instances down, 5000 more to go...
backpedaling (Score:5, Insightful)
Bullshit.
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Precisely.They backpedaled so fast that they are now tripping over their own feet-and lying tongues.
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I don't have a business support contract with Oracle - I don't actually have any obviously Oracle products here at the moment.
If I _DID_ have a business support contract with Oracle for any product, I think thiis would persuade me that my money was wasted: this sort of little thing drags down a big business reputation. Oracle may have fantastic databases, middleware, people management software, hardware, Linux OS, Java - in rough order of importance to Oracle - but this shows that they can't be trusted to d
Review? What's that? (Score:4, Insightful)
Seriously, they have nobody reviewing these things? That scares me more than the idea that it was deliberate.
Meanwhile, what I want isn't actually tzupdater. What I want's a tool that'll automatically pull down, compile and install the latest tzdata package from IANA into all JRE/JDK installations in the standard locations. The compile and install parts are already there, just need the download part and a search for folders to install in.
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sadly, I agree.
The original post [slashdot.org] about it referred to a page regarding Java6 (which I understand if Oracle wants to EoL it to force most to go with Java7).
Also, from the looks, that original link in that post no longer refers to TZUpdater for Java6 being discontinued but rather says that it is for Java7:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/tzupdater-download-513681.html [oracle.com]
Oh English...better to say what it is for than to say what it is not for, especially after it gets slashdotted.
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As near as I can tell, what happened is:
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Yoda time this is.
Dumb question: (Score:2)
Why does Java need its own tzdata instead of using what the OS provides?
Re:Dumb question: (Score:4, Informative)
So that the Java Calendar objects provide consistent(ly bad) behavior across all platforms.
Not really a dumb question, just have to understand that's a design goal for Java: to abstract away anything platform specific.
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Because not all OSs provide the time zone data in the same format... Take Windows for example, how do you get at the time zone data on that platform? (not just the current time zone as set under "date and time" but all the time zone data and settings including historical information)
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Take Windows for example, how do you get at the time zone data on that platform? (not just the current time zone as set under "date and time" but all the time zone data and settings including historical information)
By developing OS-specific ways to retrieve that information? They already do this for plenty of others things (most low level APIs).
Never intended.... (Score:2)
We never intended for a support contract to be required to keep JDK 7 up to date.
But you, Oracle, WILL intend in the future. Just like you intend today for a support contract to be required to keep JDK 6 AND JRE6 up to date.
Even though most Java software is probably built against JRE6, and incompatible with JRE7.
JDK7 is still just a way of pressuring a lot of people to pay for a support contract, because they need their critical security fixes for JRE6, to keep running their applications.
The
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Even though most Java software is probably built against JRE6, and incompatible with JRE7.
Java 6 bytecode runs perfectly fine on JRE7
JDK7 is still just a way of pressuring a lot of people to pay for a support contract, because they need their critical security fixes for JRE6, to keep running their applications.
Support contract? Updates for the JDK are freeware, and the there's always OpenJDK.
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Java 6 bytecode runs perfectly fine on JRE7
The APIs differ sufficiently that a non-trivial app legacy built for JRE 6 cannot be run on JRE 7.
They may be compatible in theory, but not in practice; not by a long shot.
Support contract? Updates for the JDK are freeware, and the there's always OpenJDK.
The older JRE is "EOL" entirely; no new security updates or other fixes are released to the public, BUT if you have a support contract for your older Java software, you still do get the fixes and updat
Java, si, Oracle, no.. (Score:1)
Java is (to me) a neutral issue. What's truly alarming is Oracle's treating of every ecosystem it comes upon as gold to be mined. Not *everything* in the world is a Larry Ellison piggy bank.
Java is a dead language (Score:1)