Oracle says goodbye to Java browser plugin in JDK 9

Source: Liam Tung (CSO Online) on 28 January, 2016 10:01

Oracle will finally deprecate its Java browser plugin in the next release of the Java SE Development Kit, JDK 9, which is scheduled for release in 2017.

The Java browser plugin and other software that use NPAPI (the old Netscape Plugin API), such as Adobe’s Flash and Microsoft’s Silverlight, have posed security risks for desktop browsers for years. And for security and performance reasons, desktop browser makers have gradually pulled support for the API.

Oracle on Wednesday announced it will move with the times and deprecate support for its 21 year old platform that supported web “applets”.

“Oracle plans to deprecate the Java browser plugin in JDK 9. This technology will be removed from the Oracle JDK and JRE in a future Java SE release,” Oracle announced on Wednesday.

Oracle gained Java through its 2010 acquisition of Sun Microsystems and has since fought a protracted legal battle with Google for copyright infringement Android. 

On the desktop front, Google disabled NPAPI by default in Chrome in April last year because of “hangs, crashes, security incidents”.