Flash and Java: the end of obsolete technologies

Already for a long time, I am a total opponent of Flash and things are clearly not improving. Quite on the contrary: Flash is still unstable on my systems, often not working correctly or causing browser hangs and it has many serious security flaws, which are fixed rather slowly by Adobe.

Another piece of technology which is annoying is Java. Java is a serious memory hog, does not integrate very well in Linux distributions (no centralized package management system for the gazillion of Java libraries and frameworks), and Java’s new owner, Oracle, is trying to make Java a patent minefield by suing Google.

Recently, Oracle also decided to publish a paying version of the Java Virtual Machine, and it has also doubled prices for MySQL support.

In the meantime, OpenOffice.org, also in hands of Oracle now, has been forked to LibreOffice. Third-party contributors were dissatisfied with Sun/Oracle’s bureaucracy which was a serious limitation for external contributions. It seems that Sun/Oracle’s behaviour to keep total control of OpenOffice.org is now having the total opposite effect: LibreOffice is gaining wide support by many Linux distributors, which will quickly make OpenOffice.org totally irrelevant.

ironically Apple, another company which I dislike about their anti-competitive behaviour, has become an ally by refusing to install Flash on the iPhone and iPad and by deprecating Java support, which makes it likely that Java will not be included in future OS X versions.

As GNOME developer Colin Walters recently stated on his blog: enough is enough! I am regularly installing computers for other users. From now on:

  • I will install Flasblock browser extensions by default, to help protecting against malicious Flash animations and to send out a signal to web developers that they should stop using Flash.
  • I will not install any Java Runtime Environment or Java Development Kit by default, except if explicitly requested by the user.
  • Instead of OpenOffice.org I will install LibreOffice on all Windows and Mac systems I install. For Linux I will keep the default office suite installed by the distribution, but this will also be LibreOffice in about 6 months when all major Linux distributors have published a new release.
  • I will try to use PostgreSQL instead of MySQL for web applications. Currently I already installed a LimeSurvey instance and a MediaWiki instance with PostgreSQL instead of the more common MySQL and moved a Roundcube instance from MySQL to Postgresql. I expect to install a Drupal 7 instance on PostgreSQL in the future.

As users, we have a lot of power to show companies that we do not accept their behaviour. Let’s use that power now!

One thought on “Flash and Java: the end of obsolete technologies

  1. there exists a centralized package management system for Java; it’s called Maven.
    I’m not happy with Oracle’s behavior but I’m not throwing out Java any time soon!

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