this is probably a little touchy to ask...

[Michel Talon]

Jerry said:
"
It took years, literally, before FreeBSD matured enough to get 64-bit
drivers for nVidia working correctly on its platform. The failure to
get the latest version(s) of Java working correctly on FreeBSD and
thereby, at least in my case, make the latest version of Firefox fully
usable, rests with the FreeBSD developers.
"

I would be happy to have a precise information on what is not working.
On my machine, FreeBSD-8.1 x86, Java works.
niobe% java -version
java version "1.6.0_03-p4"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build
1.6.0_03-p4-michel_30_jul_2010_15_01-b00)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build
1.6.0_03-p4-michel_30_jul_2010_15_01-b00, mixed mode)


As you can see, it is a recent java, and i have compiled it myself.
If i remember well, the prebuilt diablo-jdk was not working. I have
boostraped my compilation by using a prebuilt openjdk installed with
pkg_add -r. Of course i modified the Makefile to be able to use it.

The openjdk package did not include a mozilla plugin, but the above
compilation produces a plugin.

Now the real problem: firefox36 doesn't see the plugin, and even worse
doesn't produce any message about the plugin when starting up. 
However i am able to use the plugin under seamonkey, so it is clearly
a firefox problem, and not a Java problem or a FreeBSD problem.
Strangely enough, Konqueror, which doesn't use the plugin, but a direct
invocation of java, doesn't work either. Execution of an applet begins,
something appears but the applet execution never appears on
screen. This is the first time i see Java not working on Konqueror.


Last point: some people say in this thread that nobody uses Java any
more on the browser, hence it is of no importance that one cannot have a
java enabled firefox. I have an example to the contrary, here in France
you can submit your tax declaration online, and the application allowing
to do that is a java applet running under the browser. Similarly i am
using a printing service for my photographs which allows to download
them and manage the order via a java applet. Hence, at least in my case
i see immediately several important applications using a Java enabled
browser.





-- 

Michel TALON