Java Applets + Ubuntu 10.04 = Clusterfuck

Posted May 24, 2010

After dicking around for 2 days, I'm fairly convinced that as things stand right now, trying to develop Java Applets on Ubuntu 10.04 is a complete and total clusterfuck (no, I'm not being needlessly crude, it's a real term - look it up).

Consider the following:

  • Sun JDK not directly supported under Ubuntu 10.04 which instead favours OpenJDK and IceTea
  • Sun discontinued support for a FireFox plugin to open the Java console
  • OpenJDK under Ubuntu has no configuration entry under System/Preferences or System/Administration
  • FireFox provides exactly zero configuration options for how it will run Java Applets (despite using OJI, which is supposed to make the two talk nicely to each other)

The net result? If your applet fails to load (anyone doing applet development knows this is bound to happen with something as benign as a misspelled JAR filename), there is precisely zero way to discover what went wrong.

The whole mess stinks to high heaven.

I never thought I'd be in a position where programming something under Windows would actually prove easier to do that under Linux.

Canonical, Oracle/Sun, Mozilla Foundation - I don't like to swear, but you three fucked this up big time.

And just for the record - I've never gotten Konqueror to work with Applets, and I've never figured out how to get Opera to show a console with actual information from the applet (just empty), but given these have such a minor market-share, I don't consider this a major issue.

Posted in Programming
Tagged as java, applet, and ubuntu

Comments

1 David Allen July 7, 2010

I have not tried to develop applets in Ubuntu, but I cannot get Wordle.net to work on Ubuntu. I wonder if you or anyone can help with this. I am new to linux and I too am disappointed I have to go to windows to do anything at all.

2 Atul Kakrana August 5, 2010

Take it easy friend..Here is the way!

Uninstall icedtea plugin and openjdk-jre (only these 2 files)

install Sunjava-jre and sunjava-plugins

restart computer

open terminal and command $ update-alternatives --config java (Example Below)

Select sunjava in selection

use browser!!!Enjoy

setu@BloodhoundX:~$ sudo update-alternatives --config java
[sudo] password for setu:
There are 2 choices for the alternative java (providing /usr/bin/java).

Selection Path Priority Status
------------------------------------------------------------
* 0 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/bin/java 1061 auto mode
1 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/bin/java 1061 manual mode
2 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/bin/java 63 manual mode

Press enter to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number: 2
update-alternatives: using /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/bin/java to provide /usr/bin/java (java) in manual mode.

3 egis November 1, 2010

to Atul Kakrana:
it's not a solution friend - no one method works properly, either icedtea/openJDk nor sun-java applets doesn't close at all.
You can try this at www.chess.lt and click Play!

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