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Oracle Now Bundling Ask.com Adware With Java for Mac

maflynn said:
I'm not a developer and I was prompted to install it a while ago.
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Sure. I should clarify. For the most part, non-developers should not need or even need to be aware of the existence of Java - just like most Mac or iPhone users don't need to know what Objective-C or Cocoa is.

Java is not used on the client very often now, but apparently there are some apps that do still use it, unfortunately.
 
I feel sorry for all the folks who leave Java installed like they actually need it for something other than crapware bundling by oracle and offering hackers an easy to exploit RAT vector into their computer.

Do yourself a big favor and deinstall Java today.
 
This is a good reason to only install Java if you actually need it. If you are only installing it because some web site that you are looking at says that you need it then my advise is that you don't install it and move on. If you actually have something that you are doing that needs it then install it. I avoid installing any software, but especially software that pulls this crap, unless I have to have the software for a task. Most people don't actually need this software anyway.

Developers need Java, normal users usually don't. Make a good move for the security of your system and only install it if you need it.

Oracle is officially guilty of malicious activity on the Mac platform.
 
*raises hand*

I am actually one of those rare users who actually do need Java to be installed. It's requited to run TWS, the trading platform of Interactive Brokers. Despite being written in Java, TWS is actually the best trading platform app I've used so far (they are generally all utterly horrible, the only question is what platform sucks the least).
 
Don't forget that some software bundles Google Toolbar or Chrome too, like Adobe products on Windows. Haven't seen that on my Mac just yet.
 
Adobe and Oracle are both billion dollar companys according to their ticker symbols. So why do they need to make additional money by upsetting their customers? It is ridiculous. I do not need McAfee, Ask.com, or any other bundled pieces of crap with their crappy plugins.
 
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People bashed the Flash player for years because of insecurity but Java has way more security holes. Adobe also never tried installing extra crap with the Flash player.

Flash had it faults of course. My point is that Java is worse in many cases and should be faced with the same scrutiny that Flash did. Only reason it isn't is because non-developers didn't exploit Java as much as they did with Flash with bloated horrible code plastered onto every page. Just like any programming language there is a right way to do things and a unholy violation slapped together by duck tape and chicken wire way of doing things. Guess which method was used by most non-developers. Java on the other hand tends to be used by mostly seasoned developers or at least forces developers to work a certain way. Not that it always helps. Any programming language can have bad code.

The issue I have with Java is that it has security holes and is used for a lot more sensitive personal and business information than Flash ever was. The kind of information people would actually want to steal. Not my scores and log in information for an on-line game.
 
Exactly one of the things I don't miss about Windows. At one point, my family's PC had been so polluted by these add-on bars that IE had NINE of them. Blech.

The same goes for any other "value-added" software, whether it is by a PC or phone manufacturer.
 
junkstory said:
I wish for Java and Oracle to die in a hole and go out of business. As a developer, I hate their IDE. Eclipse is the worst developer environment I have ever used, and Java is an inferior language compared to C# and Objective-C.

As a consumer, I hate Java/Oracle even more for their sneaky attempts to install malware on my machine, and their endless and sudden pop-ups asking me to update Java. :mad:
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Seriously, even worse than Netbeans???
 
cube said:
I had to go through the trouble of immediately unistalling this crap from a couple PCs because of being too fast to uncheck sometimes.

I still cannot believe Oracle would do this.

They might be very angry at Google and Microsoft, but this is not the right way.
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Java installers (along with tons of others) have had this on the PC for years and years now. There's nothing even close to new there as far as PCs go.
 
Java required

It seems that Java is required in order to manage a Synology NAS.

That is unfortunate, as I would rather not have Java at all.
 
smetvid said:
People bashed the Flash player for years because of insecurity but Java has way more security holes. Adobe also never tried installing extra crap with the Flash player.

Flash had it faults of course. My point is that Java is worse in many cases and should be faced with the same scrutiny that Flash did. Only reason it isn't is because non-developers didn't exploit Java as much as they did with Flash with bloated horrible code plastered onto every page. Just like any programming language there is a right way to do things and a unholy violation slapped together by duck tape and chicken wire way of doing things. Guess which method was used by most non-developers. Java on the other hand tends to be used by mostly seasoned developers or at least forces developers to work a certain way. Not that it always helps. Any programming language can have bad code.

The issue I have with Java is that it has security holes and is used for a lot more sensitive personal and business information than Flash ever was. The kind of information people would actually want to steal. Not my scores and log in information for an on-line game.
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Even Flash installers have had this too (at least on the PC side). Many installers have had this for years and years (again at the very least on the PC side).

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Sasparilla said:
For certain things, have a relative who prints coupons and requires it for that...can't tell you how many times I've had to uninstall the ask.com garbage off her Windows machine.

Oracle is a despicable company. Over in Windows world their online installer (the default one) has the Ask installer embedded in it (be sure and uncheck the install options for ask during the install and your OK), but the full offline Windows installer does not (you have to hunt a little, but not much, on Oracle's site for it) - I always use that one to avoid this mess for Windows PC's.
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Something that has been done for many installers in the PC world for years and years. The practice is certainly not new or surprising, and while it's not great or even good, it's also not this horrific thing that people are trying to make it out to be either.
 
The admin application for my Insteon controller requires Java, along with some version of the Adobe suite the wife uses.
 
AdonisSMU said:
I'm so glad Oracle is screwing up Java. It's such a crap language anyway.
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Not really liking something or truly dealing with it doesn't make something overall bad universally for everyone and everything.
 
I right-clicked on the "Java 8 Update 40" installer app to show the package contents and located the JavaAppletPlugin.pkg package (as mentioned on some Mac admin sites). Using the package, I was able to install Java (or update existing installations) without any prompts to install a helper tool or Ask.com.

Java on the client side, especially in browsers, still stinks in my opinion, but at least this is an easy way to install Java without all the other crap.
 
Just click on "Suppress sponsor offers when installing or updating Java" at the bottom of the settings in the "Advanced" tab in the "Java Control Panel". See attached picture...
 

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Elbon said:
If you're not a software developer, then you don't need Java. If you are a software developer, you understand that all this Java bashing makes the visitors to this site look like uninformed idiots.
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Certainly not true.

I need java*2 for work/studies/research. Apple's v6 implementation for two desktop apps and currently v7 of the web plugin for the front end of our archive server software. The latter will hopefully change to javascript/html5 later though.

I hate java. I hate Oracle. Oracle is the reason LibreOffice exists (thank the gods).

I say this as an end user, not a developer. You might not see much of java in widely used commercial software but smaller teams developing niche software are sometimes so heavily invested in the platform that it becomes too expensive to change. It's not about whether there are better solutions available or not. That and easy to use cross compatibility, I guess?
 
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