Status of Java in FreeBSD? (OpenSolaris is dead)

[Roland Smith]

On Fri, Aug 13, 2010 at 12:58:01PM -0700, Kurt Buff wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 13, 2010 at 11:57, Roland Smith <rsmith at xs4all.nl> wrote:
> > On Fri, Aug 13, 2010 at 07:59:20PM +0200, Antonio Vieiro wrote:
> >> Hi all,
> >>
> >> Now that OpenSolaris is dead [1] I was wondering what the status of Java
> >> is in FreeBSD.
> >> [1] http://sstallion.blogspot.com/2010/08/opensolaris-is-dead.html
> >
> > IMO the "status" of Java is "best to avoid it". Just ask Google. :-)
> 
> So, what do you suggest for SSL VPN clients? Some/most/all of the
> clients for these things are Java-based - well, except for clients
> running Windows and for which there is (usually) an ActiveX control
> (shudder.)

If I read [2] correctly, isn't SSL VPN supposed to be clientless and work
through the browser?

[2]: http://www.windowsecurity.com/articles/VPN-Options.html

> That's just the most interesting one to me, but OOo also relies on
> Java for some functionality (thought that's somewhat a Sun/Oracle
> effort too, and one wonders about its fate also) and there are other
> applications for which Java is a critical component.

According to [3], some OpenOffice functionality depends on Java, but it can be
built without it. I hacked the OOO (2.x IIRC) port to that effect once, but I
deleted it since I didn't use it much. Personally I prefer Emacs, LaTeX and
assorted scripting languages. :-)

[3]: http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Java_and_OpenOffice.org

Roland
-- 
R.F.Smith                                   http://www.xs4all.nl/~rsmith/
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