Last week, I asked if Oracle’s Java software was worth keeping around on home computers, given its numerous security issues, unpleasant updates and general irrelevance.
Your comments pointed out a few ongoing uses of Java–one right on this site. But since then, I’ve seen other reasons to doubt this software’s utility.
One is further evidence of the attention malware authors are paying to Java–a Microsoft security study that shows Java exploits now massively outnumber attacks on Adobe’s PDF software.
(Yes, Microsoft tried to sabotage Java in the ’90s, back when it showed actual promise as an alternative software-development platform. That doesn’t invalidate its work a decade later.)
The other is Apple’s decision–”announced” in a document on its developer site that went largely unnoticed until today–to back away from Java. The release notes updated yesterday declare Java “deprecated” and state that Apple’s Java software “will not be maintained at the same level, and may be removed from future versions of Mac OS X.”
Translation: Apple may take longer than it already does to ship Java security updates previously released on other platforms.
So why keep Java around? Well–this is awkward–the Post’s online crossword puzzles require it. So do those at other sites, such as Merl Reagle’s Sunday Crosswords.
Post managing editor Raju Narisetti e-mailed that the paper had no plans to revise its crosswords software until after completing a major update to its publishing system, sometime in the second quarter of 2011.
Reagle wrote in an e-mail that “the day that someone comes along with a better online interface, we’ll jump to it — java or not — but there doesn’t seem to be one out there.”
The New York Times doesn’t employ Java. But its subscription-required crosswords site instead requires members to install a separate, proprietary plug-in, an equally obsolete solution.
I don’t know why there’s this industry-wide hangup when it comes to online crosswords. It’s possible to write a crossword puzzle using just JavaScript, as this simple example on a developer’s site shows. (JavaScript, if anybody’s confused by that ill-chosen name, has nothing to do with Java.) Adobe’s Flash can do the job too, as seen on such sites as the Los Angeles Times.
Like many of you, I like crossword puzzles. But I also like having a secure computer that requires updates to as few Web-facing software components as possible. To me, that makes Java expendable. So I am going to disable it on the machines I use–while continuing to do battle with crosswords on paper–and I think you should too.
In Windows, uninstalling Java through the Control Panel (“Add or Remove Programs” in Windows XP, “Uninstall a program” in Windows Vista and 7) will suffice. In Mac OS X, you can’t uninstall Java but you can disable it in your browser–which eliminates your risk of drive-by-download attacks. To do that in Safari, open its Preferences window, click the “Security” header, and click to clear the checkbox next to “Enable Java.” In Firefox, go to its Tools menu, select Add-Ons, click the Plug-Ins header and right-click on each Java item listed there and select “Disable.”
You can also use that Firefox workaround to turn Java on and off at will in Windows, in case there’s one Java site that you can’t avoid.
Let me know if those directions work for you–or if there are other reasons to keep Java that I’ve missed.
Senior Software Developer, working in RayooTech software outsourcing company, website: http://www.techomechina.com/
Article from articlesbase.com
Merl Reagle, master puzzle constructor, raconteur, unapologetic punner and anagrammer, recently seen on the Simpsons and as a major player in the documentary Wordplay. Here he performs before and is aided and abetted by an adoring audience at the 2010 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament “Crossworders Got Talent” variety show.
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