Java plugin with Firefox 3.6

[bdsfbsd at att.net]

On Mon, 07 Jun 2010 17:24:47 -0400, Chuck Swiger <cswiger at mac.com> wrote:

> On Jun 7, 2010, at 1:08 PM, Jerry wrote:
> [ ... ]
>> I honestly enjoy satire. That said, it does not change the fact that a  
>> serviceable version of Java, suitable for Firefox-3.6, does not exist  
>> within the FreeBSD framework.
>
> That's pretty much accurate, if you don't want to consider running  
> FF+Java under Linux emulation.
> [ ... ]

High-level religious arguments aside, could we get a little advice the for  
newbie who wants to try using FreeBSD, but needs Java to work with  
Firefox? (As this is the 'questions' list, and not the 'debate what fBSD  
devs ought to be working on' list.)

Here's what I know, for posterity sake..

Firefox 3.6 needs Java 6 Update 10. [1]

For now, as a newbie, I generally try not to install anything not in the  
ports collection. From there you can find some JREs, but none are at  
Update 10, including Linux emulation. [2] At this time, the highest I see  
there is diablo-jre-1.6.0.07.02_8.

That's okay, I really wanted the full JDK anyway, so I look for that. [3]  
There appears to be four flavors available; diablo-jdk, openjdk, jdk and  
linux-sun-jdk:

diablo-jdk-1.6.0.07.02_9
openjdk-7.0.86 (requires diablo-jdk-1.6.0.07.02_9)
jdk-1.6.0.3p4_15 (requires diablo-jdk-1.6.0.07.02_9, and is "based on  
1.6.0_03 (aka 6u3)")
linux-sun-jdk-1.6.0.20

It looks like the Linux version is the only one up-to-date enough for  
Firefox 3.6. Would that only work with the Linux version of Firefox 3.6?  
If so, then one must go outside of the ports collection to get it. [4] At  
this time, the highest version I see in ports is linux-firefox-devel-3.5.9.


I suspect the best thing to do would be to go with a current JDK and an  
older version of (native) Firefox, and not upgrade Firefox until the JDK  
version gets to Java 6 Update 10, allowing the JDK to upgrade naturally  
along with the rest of keeping my system up to date. If folks in-the-know  
around here agree with that, I'll probably start a new thread 'Which  
JDK?', as I find that confusing.

Thanks,
Brian

[1] http://java.com/en/download/faq/firefox_newplugin.xml
[2] http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/ports.cgi?query=jre
[3] http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/ports.cgi?query=jdk&sektion=java
[4] http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/ports.cgi?query=linux-firefox