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sun-java6 packages removed soon from Debian/Ubuntu (and all other linux distros)
For the story, due to license reasons, the version of Java packaged in Linux distributions is not the same as the one released on the official website.
Each time a new version of Java is was released, Sun/Oracle people are were publishing a other distro specific release available on a dedicated website.
Since I have been maintaining sun-java6 packages for a year and half, I am following the rhythm releases (security is one of the reasons).
A few days ago, I pinged on Twitter Dalibor Topic, who is, AFAIK, the person in charge of this at Oracle, he replied with a blog post Retiring the DLJ.
The main information from this blog post is:
[...] further Oracle JDK 6 (or Oracle JDK 7) releases on Linux and Solaris will not be provided under the DLJ [...]
Basically, that means that Linux distributions will not be able to package new releases of the proprietary JVM/JDK (including the latest update -27). The only release available in the Linux distro will be the OpenJDK.
While I am glad to see Oracle pushing the free JDK, I am a bit concern by this sudden decision. There are still bugs (for example, with fonts, applets or other others issues) present in the OpenJDK which does not happen in the sun-java6 packages.
And also, as Andrew John Hughes said on Twitter, the Oracle proprietary JVM just lost one of the two freedoms it had (free to redistribute the software)...
Moreover, many people are still using the proprietary JVM. For example, Debian popularity contest or Ubuntu Popularity Contest reports 836864 installations of sun-java6-jre against 749731 of openjdk-6-jre.
The bottom line is, if you are aware of bugs present only in OpenJDK, please report them (on the Debian bug tracker, launchpad or as a comment of this blog post). We will report them upstream to make sure OpenJDK is as good as sun-java6.
Edit: comments closed due to the spams... Drop me an email on sylvestre@debian.org. I will push them.
14 commentaires
Cant we make it simple like the flashplayer installer in ubuntu? A Package wich downloads the latest oracle-jre from the site and install it? 
We could do that but we probably won't. We could either take this opportunity to improve Openjdk.
Hello,I am not sure how to provide more useful information, but I have run into an issue that seems to be caused by openjdk:
When using the application ReplicatorG (http://replicat.org/), the 3-d rendering area is completely blank. However, when selecting "...jvm/java-6-sun" with update-alternatives, everything works fine.
This issue is illustrated here: http://maxlupo.com/media/misc/openjdk-sunjdk.png
And there is some discussion here: http://replicatorg.lighthouseapp.com/projects/66325/tickets/155-replicatorg-model-preview-doesnt-show-after-ubuntu-114-upgrade-natty
It could be an issue with ReplicatorG, or it could be an issue with openjdk, I am not sure. Please let me know how I can provide more useful information.
I use Crashplan ( www.crashplan.com ) which depends on sun-java6-jre. A lot of java programs I have used (e.g. citrix) seem to prefer the sun-java6-jre package. 
The way OpenJDK does font stuff is fundamentally wrong, this needs to be forwarded upstream and fixed there: #637246 #637250 
OpenJDK does not work with Raiffeisen Bank internet banking at https://connect.raiffeisen.ru/ . Namely, their applet allows me to sign the money order, but when I actually submit the signed order, the two JDKs behave differently. Sun JDK makes a POST request in a browser that results in the order being accepted. OpenJDK makes a GET request that fails with the 400 error because the resulting URL is too long (includes the whole legal document as text).I understand that the bug description above is useless for reproducing a bug, because you don't have an account in that bank. If you have any instructions for me that will let you reproduce the bug without the bank account, post them here or email to me.
@Paul: I am considering helping the Openjdk team for the packaging.I could start on such aspects (I am also bored about such issues).
@Others: While I like to have feedbacks, real bug reports (with test cases which shows the issues) would be way more useful.
NO... 
i guess one could shed some tears about a non-free package becoming harder to install, but i hope this puts more pressure on fixing bugs in the openjdk.i find it rather sad that after so many years of java being released under the GPL license that people are still prefering the non-free version.
greetings, eMBee.
My only concern is about JNLP. Hope the WIP in OpenJDK will be usable soon :-) 
Thanks for the heads-up!It would certainly be good if someone could verify, and maybe ping intel & co, that all those Java-Web-Console applets (Webstart?) that modern hardware comes with, will run flawlessly with OpenJDK.
Thanks for the heads up.Like Alexander E. Patrakov above mentioned, I can't get banking done with OpenJDK.
Any chance of a howto to help Debian users to properly install Oracle JDK?
Cool! +1 for OpenJDK being the only one, finally… (besides gcj, of course) 
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