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Re: Is it time to remove sun-java6?



Stefano Zacchiroli wrote:
On Thu, Oct 08, 2009 at 11:44:21AM -0400, Barry deFreese wrote:
There has also been some similar discussions in Ubuntu with some
users reporting that some web sites and packages don't work with
openjdk but I have not seen a lot of concrete proof.

I might look a naive user here, but with openjdk I still don't have
plugin support in firefox 3.5, whereas it was working with
sun-java*. I'm on amd64 and using icedtea6-plugin, even the most simple
examples of http://java.sun.com/products/plugin/1.5.0/demos/applets.html
do not appear to work.

I know I should have filled the bug report first, but I frankly
discovered only now that the equivalent of old sun-java6-plugin
metapackage is icedtea and that's bring me to another subject: users
should be informed on how to migrate away from sun java6 (even because
it would be a de facto switch from non-free software to free software,
even if it is the same).  Do we currently have a smooth migration path
from the old set of packages to the new set in place for Lenny to
Squeeze migrations?

Before that is in place, I'd consider premature removing sun-java*.

Cheers.

Stefano,

Well that brings up part of my question. I doubt we have a smooth migration since sun-java6 doesn't even have a maintainer. Even Sun is End Of Lifing sun-java6 soonish ( at least the potential is there that it could get EOL'd during Squeezes lifecycle). Not to mention it currently has 34 open security issues (granted, I have not verified all of the ones showing up on PTS).

Hell I'd even try to help maintain it from a QA perspective but I am not a Java person. Nor could I even attempt to help fix openjdk/icedtea but at some point these issues have to get resolved, don't they? The potential is that we either have a broken sun-java package or none. I realize that the current package apparently works but the potential is there for it to break and no one to fix it.

Thanks,

Barry deFreese


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