Sun Java update creaks under weight of bug fixes

Sun has pushed out a major update to its Java software package that features scores of bug fixes, including a number of security updates. Java 6 Update 4 includes a hefty 370 bug fixes (as explained here). Most of these are minor tweaks to improve performance or application glitches, but some are more notable as they address …

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Posted Thursday 24th January 2008 14:54 GMT

Anonymous Coward

Is it just me? #

Or is there a download problem? Or are the Linux versions not available yet? I keep getting a "Product not found" error whenever I try to download any Linux version of the update.

OK, so that wasn't actually earth-shattering news ...... I'll get my coat.

Posted Thursday 24th January 2008 16:32 GMT

Mark

What's Fixed #

Did they catch that bug that, by default, keeps old versions installed and accessible by malware?

Oh, excuse me, that's a feature to enable backwards compatibility, and as such needs to be turned on by default to ensure the Great Unwashed Masses remain vulnerable^W compatible.

Posted Thursday 24th January 2008 16:32 GMT

Dave

yeah - just you #

to quote the update description from the site http://java.sun.com/javase/6/webnotes/ReleaseNotes.html#160_04 (linked to so kindly by the author of the article): "Input methods implemented using the Java Input Method Framework may not work correctly on Red Hat 5 Linux desktop"

Posted Thursday 24th January 2008 17:29 GMT

Anonymous Coward

annoying litter ... #

Java is a notorious litter bug with old versions left all over your harddisk. (Flash is another).

Not to mention all of the products where the uninstaller just disables or hides the damn thing!

The secunia PSI tool is very good at finding all of this litter and can be a boon in cleaning up. Free for private use. Haven't looked at it beyond that.

grrrr ... they should know better

Posted Friday 25th January 2008 09:29 GMT

Anonymous Coward

time to switch... #

Well the .Net framework allows both easy configuration of multiple versions to sit side-by-side as well as un-installs...

At this rate it won't be long before the Java Runtime will be the same download size too so why not just switch to J#?

Posted Friday 25th January 2008 10:56 GMT

Stephen B Streater

Perhaps because .Net doesn't work #

on my Mac and Linux boxes. And as a developer, I'd like my customers to be able to run my software.

Posted Friday 25th January 2008 11:31 GMT

Jeff Dickey

Besides.... #

you'd think that a kleptocrat the size of Microsoft could spell correctly.

It's .NHT in the original Russian; rendered as '.NYET' in English.

Just ask anybody who's tried to take a .NHT 3.0 app and run it on an operating system.

Posted Wednesday 30th January 2008 09:48 GMT

Adam Azarchs

Quit the flaming #

For my job, I work with .NET all the time, including 3.0. I has it's flaws, sure, but so does java. At least on Windows, .NET has far, far fewer flaws and better performance. On linux/mac there's always mono, although I'll admit mono's support is sketchy at times.

I still haven't gotten java to actually run without crashing on my linux install... not that I've tried very hard.

Posted Wednesday 6th February 2008 12:34 GMT

Anonymous Coward

You might want to amend the article #

"With 5.0 Update 6 and later installed on the Windows platform, all applets are executed with the latest version of Java environment. So users who upgrade from more recent versions have no reason to delete older versions from their systems other than for general housekeeping reasons".

Dangerous advise to be dispensing. Old versions of Java absolutely should be removed and the computer rebooted before a new version is installed. Even though applets may use the new version, the presence of old JREs leaves the computer vulnerable to the exploits out there that target older versions (Vundo, for example).

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