Java 6 EOL'd By Oracle 115
Tmack writes "Not completely unexpected, Java6 has reached EOL. This tidbit shows up in Oracle's Java6 FAQ page, recommending everyone update to Java7: 'Oracle no longer posts updates of Java SE 6 to its public download sites. All Java 6 releases up to and including 6u45 have been moved to the Java Archive on the Oracle Technology Network, where they will remain available but not receive further updates. Oracle recommends that users migrate to Java 7 in order to continue receiving public updates and security enhancements.' Apple just pushed its update 16 which is Java6u51, likely to be one of their last Java6 updates."
Hating Oracle (Score:5, Funny)
Hating Oracle just feels right. All the pointless rage we deliver to Microsoft for terrible, greedy business decisions, plus they kill popular open source projects. It's like being young and in love, except the opposite of that.
Re:Hating Oracle (Score:5, Insightful)
Oracle still support Java 6 - if you pay through the nose. They just no longer provide free of charge updates to the non-paying public.
Java is available free of charge. Java 6 is from 2006. Why should any for profit company provide endless free of charge updates for free of charge software?
Does the Mozilla Foundation still ship free of charge updates for Firefox 2.0?
Does Apple still provide free of charge updates for Mac OS X 10.5 (and that actually wasn't free of charge)
Does Adobe still provide free of charge updates for Flashplayer 9 (say, fix the 40,000 security bugs they claim to have found in it)
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Oracle still support Java 6 - if you pay through the nose. They just no longer provide free of charge updates to the non-paying public.
Or you can rely on Red Hat doing the same support for free: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/03/08/red_hat_openjdk_6_leadership/ [theregister.co.uk] http://www.redhat.com/about/news/press-archive/2013/3/red-hat-reinforces-java-commitment [redhat.com]
OpenJDK though, but still.
Re:Hating Oracle (Score:5, Informative)
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Since JDK6, Oracle Java is based on OpenJDK. Unless your using one of the specific features oracle tweaks or adds you should be fine.
Even minecraft craps itself on openjdk... if you use forge and/or optifine. Both of which are pretty much mandatory.
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What are you basing this information on?
Personal experience. If I don't run Sun java then minecraft crashes every time if I have forge OR optifine, let alone both.
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Must be a 64 bit problem, I'm having it on rapey rabbit or whatever you call this distribution of Ubuntu. I also found that you can't update lwjgl on 64 bit unless you run sun java.
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If "performs faster than a geriatric dog with two broken legs" is considered an enterprise tweak or add, then yes, you are correct.
OpenJDK is SLOW compared to Oracle Java. Doubly so on non-Intel platforms. It approaches unusable on ARM when doing any kind of image manipulation work (IE building RRD-style graphs).
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Being old and in hate == big chance of death (stroke, cardiac arrest). /OK, that last bit was a tasteless joke/
Learn to love Oracle and live long!
Typical Oracle - Enterprise sheds tear (Score:2)
Why can't they keep at least two major versions simultaneously released? This isn't rocket surgery.
Cutting costs and eventually killing the product.
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Because you're not lining Ellison's pocket, bum.
I have Java installed and have never paid Oracle a penny.
Re:Typical Oracle - Enterprise sheds tear (Score:5, Insightful)
And every time Larry thinks about cutting people like you off from any support or updates whatsoever, he gets a warm feeling where his heart would be if he had one.
Re:Typical Oracle - Enterprise sheds tear (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Typical Oracle - Enterprise sheds tear (Score:4, Informative)
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And you expect them to support that?
Re:Typical Oracle - Enterprise sheds tear (Score:5, Funny)
Java moto: Write once, fuck you.
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You need to work on your trolling skills, bro.
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Yup. That's the problem with using old outdated software that isn't receiving active support. Or at least not proper active support. If your tool is being actively supported and still requires Java 1.3.1, then they're doing something very wrong.
You know, some people are still running DOS apps from the 90s. That doesn't mean Microsoft is doing something wrong by refusing to support DOS.
But the bigger issue here: Developers should stop using Java. I don't really object to the language, but the Sun/Orac
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No, sometimes Java 6 (and 7) won't run now :-( (Score:5, Informative)
Java 6 will still run.
Actually, no, sometimes it won't. I have personally spent most of today fielding support problems because the "improvements" in Java applet security in 6u51 (mainly for Apple users) and 7u25 have meant precisely that systems that were working just fine yesterday are not working today.
It's like people think "Set build option X and it'll work again" or "You need to sign it with magical certification Y at time Z now" is a viable response. In reality, many Java applets are used other than as part of a maintained public web site, and once deployed maybe they can't easily be updated. They might be part of a secure intranet where any changes need expensive regulatory approvals to be redone. They might be part of a user interface embedded in network-accessible hardware. It might just be a useful demonstration on an academic's web site that they wrote ten years ago but don't maintain. In the last 48 hours, these and many other cases all broke.
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I have personally spent most of today fielding support problems because the "improvements" in Java applet security in 6u51 (mainly for Apple users) and 7u25 have meant precisely that systems that were working just fine yesterday are not working today.
... They might be part of a secure intranet where any changes need expensive regulatory approvals to be redone.
You have a secure intranet where you can't easily make changes to your applet, but yet you allow Java auto-updates to roll out untested?
And you're actually saying you would have preferred if Oracle hadn't released Java updates, because then it wouldn't have broken any old applets you have deployed.
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You have a secure intranet where you can't easily make changes to your applet, but yet you allow Java auto-updates to roll out untested?
No, obviously not. The point is that the changes on the client side (which you normally do want for security reasons) can in this case necessitate changes on the server side (which you may not be able to update without expensive regulatory hurdles).
And you're actually saying you would have preferred if Oracle hadn't released Java updates, because then it wouldn't have broken any old applets you have deployed.
No, I would have preferred that Oracle not change the rules about how signing works in ways that break backward compatibility. For example, you can't just magically update a Java applet embedded in hardware you already sold so it's signed in some way Oracle consi
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The trouble is, most software wasn't first written in the past couple of years, with whatever super-shiny tools we'd choose if we were starting from scratch today.
Not so many years ago, things like HTML5 and CSS3 didn't exist, a canvas was something you painted on with a brush, JavaScript was too slow to use for much, SVG sounded like the successor to a computer game involving aliens and predators, and if you wanted any serious interaction in your web site you used either Flash or Java applets. And so we di
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Not so much. There are plenty of architectures that have gone the way of the Dodo since 2000, and you'll find writing C code for them very difficult.
Re:Typical Oracle - Enterprise sheds tear (Score:5, Insightful)
Do you have any Idea how old Java 6 is?
Do you have any idea how new Java 7 is? It's just about two years old, but that makes it sound older than in reality, because for the first year it was out Sunacle were very clear that it was still "beta quality" and that developers should stick with Java 6. It wasn't until about a year ago that Java 7 really "rolled out" as the replacement for Java 6.
I can't remember when IT first allowed Java 7 onto our desktops, but I think it was less than a year ago. Even then, it's still not the "official" version of Java because there's some IT-related software that can't run on Java 7. Not to mention that some of the software I work with also can't run on Java 7 due to JNI incompatibilities. (Man I wish we could ditch that, but I didn't write the component that uses that component, so...)
In any case, no matter how old it is, Java 7 still isn't quite ready to replace Java 6. Especially under Mac OS X, thanks to the transition between Apple and Oracle supporting Java. Although I don't know who's really to blame for that one, Apple or Oracle, but they can both take the blame as far as I care.
The point is that I still use Java 6 on a day-to-day basis, and it's not from lack of trying to move to Java 7.
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Fortunately, it broke MatLab and apparently a lot of other Swing applications.
Oh fucking hell. What very well might be the last thing keeping us stuck on Java 6 is MATLAB on OS X. I keep on hoping MathWorks will fix it to work with Oracle Java so I can finally move everything over to Java 7.
IT has been slowly ditching the remaining software that requires Java 6 (either via upgrading or flat-out changing vendors - go IT!), but I think there's one last piece of software that still requires Java 6 on Mac OS X other than MATLAB. I know they fixed it to work with Java 7 under Windows, it'
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Do you have any Idea how old Java 6 is?
Doesn't matter. There are a *lot* of applications that not only require Java 6, but a specific point release of Java 6.
"Write once, run anywhere" my ass.
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By "a *lot* of applications" you mean things like SAP or other Enterprise traps ?
It takes a bit of work to write Java applications that are version-dependent, it's hardly ever an 'accident'.
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I maintain around a million lines of Java code and have never had this problem either. A lot of it is refection heavy, gets run on OSX, Windows, and Linux and has thousands of daily users. GUI, Web and Back End. Point release specific? The only time I ever have trouble is when I try to use a newer feature on an older JDK, or I try to compile down with a new feature. Perhaps there's some JNI code out there, but that sort of defeats the purpose most of the time. I couldn't agree more that you have to try t
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Do you have any Idea how old Java 6 is? It's not a question of keeping two version active at once. It's about it's age more than anything. Java 6 was released in 2006. It's not like their EOLing it after 2 year. Support has to end some time, and 7 years is longer than I would have kept it.
And how old is the win32 API? Now ask yourself why there are still companies that target that rather than Java ?
7 years isn't that long. Last time I checked XP was still on extended support (ie anybody can get security updates for free). Its replacement has been around for almost a decade (it won't be until it has been around for a full decade before XP is EOL).
Grrr (Score:4, Insightful)
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Many many Mission critical applications REQUIRE 6 and have yet to be updated by their vendors...
Xsan admin (needs java6)
FinalCut Server (client will not work with java 7)
Re: Grrr (Score:1)
For instance Oracle 11g ./irony
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Many many Mission critical applications REQUIRE 6 and have yet to be updated by their vendors...
Xsan admin (needs java6)
FinalCut Server (client will not work with java 7)
I'm hearing a lot of noise about this, and I find it very hard to believe. Java was designed from the very beginning to avoid breakage between releases. It's one of its primary differences from the Microsoft toolchain, where they not only don't support deprecation, they don't even try.
There were only 2 cases that I know of where Java changed radically enough to even worry about breakage: somewhere around 1.02 and the infamous 1.3 (which Oracle was complicit in keeping from its grave, even though their buyou
But I don't like SPAM (Score:3)
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Java is an overloaded identifier -- Java is a pretty nice language with a more easily parseable grammar than C++, a somewhat messy but fairly usable standard library, a virtual machine with more security holes than extra-lacey swiss cheese, and a bunch of incomprehensible frameworks stacked on top.
I never really liked Java until I started writing for Android -- which discards the frameworks, fixes much of the standard library, and rewrites the VM.
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Java is an overloaded identifier -- Java is a pretty nice language with a more easily parseable grammar than C++, a somewhat messy but fairly usable standard library, a virtual machine with more security holes than extra-lacey swiss cheese, and a bunch of incomprehensible frameworks stacked on top.
I never really liked Java until I started writing for Android -- which discards the frameworks, fixes much of the standard library, and rewrites the VM.
I can see that you didn't write for Sun's idea of mobile java and ui kit too much!
android is actually sane and pretty standardized across manufacturers..
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Java is an overloaded identifier -- Java is a pretty bad, overly verbose language that requires way to much boilerplate with a more easily parseable grammar than C++.
A somewhat messy but fairly usable standard library, but thankfully the Apache Foundation has better libs for Java.
A virtual machine with as many security holes as any other runtime, but has first class runtime native code compilation, and a bunch of incomprehensible frameworks stacked on top.
It also supports multiple languages(especially Java 7) that are superior to Java in every way: Clojure(lisp), Scala(Haskell and OCaml had a child), Ruby-and stays pretty much up to date and matches features except for the few that Java can't deal with(continuations, gain and drop privileges at will), and sort of Python, but is lagging far, far behind mainline Python. There are also laughably bad languages for the JVM, like Groovy(and PHP allegedly, but nothing cna save that turd), but that is hardly the fault of the JVM.
I never really liked Java until I started writing for Android -- which is not Java, but I love non-sequiters.
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Java is great and pays my bills you insensitive clod.
All the hackers in Russia are happy, because Java pays their bills too...
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... all the intelligent and insightful commentary from the Slashdot peanut gallery about how rubbish Java is.
The other day, i was looking through my browser history and noticed a link to the download of Java 7 u11 from January of this year. The current version is u21. That 10 updates in 6 months. No software is perfect, but when you have to issue 10 updates in 6 months, that's pretty bad.
Re:Can't wait to hear... (Score:5, Insightful)
but when you have to issue 10 updates in 6 months, that's pretty bad.
Poppycock.
I can't remember ever having my Ubuntu LTS servers go a week without security patches appearing, usually the same few bits of software; the kernel, glibc, apache, mysql, etc. Java SE models an entire machine, provides a vast application API and a powerful optimizing compiler on multiple platforms. It's a mighty piece of software and flaws abound. The real problem with Oracle and Java has been the lack of updates. By rights Java 7 SE should be on about update 110 by now. One a week.
It was already EOLed in Feb (Score:1)
Java 6 was already EOLed in feb 2013. u43 was supposed to be the last update. They keep updating it because nobody moved off of it, and apparently somone still has enough pull to get them to keep writing patches for it. This is the second (possibly third) time they've tried to EOL Java 6.
Great (Score:1)
Java SE 6 was released six and a half years ago. Prior to then Sun had a major release about every two years. The platform stalled with version 6 and it needs a kick in the ass.
There is some craptastic Java 6 software in the world that won't run correctly in Java SE 7. The writing is on the wall for that stuff. People don't tolerate neglect; they just go find alternatives.
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How about Kronos, the big timekeeping software? I know several companies that are using a current version of it and can't move pass 6.24. Did I mention they have it installed on a large number of their desktops?
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Kronos
Never heard of it. There are probably a dozen alternatives to Kronos and their time and attendance software. If a company with 3,200 employees is so incompetent that they can't get their software ported to Java SE 7 then they deserve to be abandoned by their customers. If a licensee can't be bothered to move to the new runtime for supposedly critical software then they have bigger problems and they should go on neglecting stuff until they get pwned and grownups take over.
No sympathy. Grow up and deal.
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You should probably get around some then. At least two companies I've consulted or worked for have used the software. That doesn't excuse the vendor from being able (or not being able) to support JVM7, but it also doesn't warrant any of your Internet tough guy attitude. Just because you're ignorant doesn't mean you get to insult others.
My current company is in the process of moving from Kronos to ADP. Did you know you can buy your Kronos clock once and keep it? Did you know you have to rent an ADP cloc
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If a company with 3,200 employees is so incompetent that they can't get their software ported to Java SE 7 then they deserve to be abandoned by their customers.
Should companies running 10 year old software that has reached end of support several years ago, expect the software to be updated to support the latest Java version? Upgrading time and attendance software (like most enterprise software) is non-trivial, since it affects when people are scheduled to work and how people are paid and people tend to become irate when they aren't paid correctly.
If a licensee can't be bothered to move to the new runtime for supposedly critical software then they have bigger problems and they should go on neglecting stuff until they get pwned and grownups take over
It is not simply a matter of moving to a new runtime, as software releases are often tested against specific Java versi
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Set your sights a little higher, just one of the companies has 45K employees. They would love to update the software, but they have to wait till the Vendor updates the program. There are not a lot of cheap options for something like this at the Enterprise level.
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They should let Kronos know that it's unacceptable that they don't update their software to be compatible with the latest JVMs. If enough people bitch, they'll fix it.
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People don't tolerate neglect; they just go find alternatives.
some even might go find alternatives to java altogether ... oh wait. not really, because most people tends not to look for alternatives at all, and actually tolerates shitloads of bullshit. that's why companies like oracle exist.
Re:If it's so bad... Fork It (Score:5, Funny)
Perl
EOL Oracle (Score:3, Insightful)
I wish Oracle were end of lifed.
Not a big deal... (Score:5, Insightful)
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What bugs me, is this isn't news. That notice has been on the website for at least a month - even with the exact same update number "6u45". They actually started that notice with "6u41" as far as I remember, and its been EOL'ed since February. Yet new releases have been released to the non-paying public because of 0-day exploits.
Maybe this time they mean it though?
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Stop using the "Online" install. Stop using java.com. Just download the official installations from java.oracle.com (labelled "offline") and you will never see any ads.
Solution (Score:3)
Doesn't Android need JDK 6? (Score:2)
I have an idea (Score:4, Interesting)
Ubuntu (Score:2)
Does this mean Ubuntu will make the use of JDK 7 automatic? It's easy enough to make it your default instead of 6, but the default for 12.04 is still JDK 6. It's not nice to make the default an EOL product.
Java 7 and prime time (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Java 7 and prime time (Score:5, Informative)
The problem isn't that Java 7 isn't production ready. The problem is the large amount of production that isn't Java 7 ready.
So it's time to discard those old crap-apps. (Score:2)
So it's time to fix it to be Java 7 ready. Pretty good distrinction between well written apps and crapware is number of difficulties when porting to Java 7. Most of my apps just worked, yet I always avoided (most of) crapola "enterprise" technologies like EJB etc. Switch to Java 7 is pretty good point to decide which of your apps should be depreciated (or undergo severe overhaul) and which are fit enough to still be maintained. It's called evolution.
It's also a good occasion to get rid of super-heavy "ente
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All in all, Java isn't very enterprise friendly for us. We have some systems that rely on applets and browser plugins working correctly, there is no way around that. As far as I see it, for security reasons we would like to block applets by
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People who don't think java7 is ready are smoking crack. It's been production ready for a long time.. Works on Linux, works on OSX, works on Windows.
Java 7 doesn't work on OS X 10.6.x (Snow Leopard).
Our in house apps barely stabilize @ 6 (Score:2)
We've just gotten to 6 and nothing works reliably on 7 at all. You wind up running unsupported at your own peril. Current course and speed we'll be off 6 around 2015
Work (Score:1)
We've removed java on 99% of our machines. It's generally not needed anymore except for specialized apps, and most of our users don't use java apps. Java on Windows = PITA. Admin access, attempts to install the ask toolbar, etc made it too expensive to maintain.
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Any desktop applications still using java should probably stop assuming an installed JVM and bundle one. Has a few drawbacks, obviously.