Updated: Java in the web browser in Debian Squeeze -- you have to add it (but today -- Feb. 8, 2010 -- where exactly is it?)

IMHO the Java plugin shouldn't be installed in a default installation. Currently it's beside Flash and the Acrobate Reader plugin a beloved attack vector and I wouldn't add more exposure to web browsers by default even if Linux systems are not yet in the main line of attacks.

And I for one only need the Java plugin for hardware with build-in admin interfaces writen as a Java applet and to test things with the Opera Mini emulator. Haven't seen any other good use cases for it in a long time. I guess we're way past the late 90's when it's been hip to have Java applet based navigation menus on your website and such crap.

I only need the Java browser plugin because one of the vendors I deal with for content storage and delivery allows for Java-based uploading of files.

The vendor also has an FTP option, which used to be subpar but is better nowadays, I've been told. I should test it soon, and if it does work I'd definitely need Java a whole lot less.

I tested a games provider a month or so ago; all the games were Java-based, and they were of very high quality. I didn't end up using this particular vendor, but I was impressed with the richness of the offerings that were created in Java.

Interesting and I thought all the browser based games moved on to Flash and/or loads of JavaScript.

In this particular instance I don't think the Java games are so much "browser" based as browser-selected. The thing then downloads and a window opens with the game in it. I'm not sure what the browser's participation in the whole thing is at that point.

Hey, it's not 'icetea6-plugin', it's 'icedtea6-plugin'. Just a typo, but it matters.

Thanks for the correction - I will roll it into the entry.

Steven

Much Ado About Nothing?

You've said that you installed icedtea6-plugin, from Repository, through Synaptic. My Synaptic shows that it is available from stable/main.

You say that it is in the list, but the link is empty. Should we not just conclude that the link doesn't work?

Is the big message either that Java is not installed by default or "where exactly is it?".(Erk! It's in Repository, it's installable and you installed it!)

I have sun-java6-jre and sun-java6-plugin. (It is available in stable/non-free.)But I didn't go down the route of Synaptic or CLI. I used the script smxi (http://smxi.org/). It is already installed in Antix Linux. I later installed it into Aptosid Linux and Debian Squeeze. I told it to install OpenOffice -OpenOffice needs Java - and Java was installed.

Alan, I think it's a bit more mysterious than that. I was able to get the icedtea6-plugin in either late November or early December when Squeeze was still in Testing. Now it doesn't seem to be in the Stable repositories. What if I removed it and wanted to reinstall? Would it be there. What if I need to do a new installation, will I be able to get the package?

I'll have to look at the non-free repository for the Sun packages. You'd think that Debian would have more than a little interest in having Icedtea as a freer alternative. If I knew what was going on, I'd feel better about it.

Squeeze is still settling in as the Stable release. Perhaps this will clear up in the near future.

Alan let me know that he did a more recent Debian Squeeze install and he had no problem getting icedtea6-plugin on his system. His Synaptic shows it in the Stable/Main section of the repository.