Sun Java, new/old version/s:

[SG1]

Saw in news feed the other day, that when updating Sun Java J2SE runtime environment that the old ver. is left intact, and may be subj. (however unlikely to takeover by bad guys, exploiting older ver. even tho' you have new/improved/more secure ver. installed). I'd gather then, that it's best to uninstall old ver. In case of below screencap, I would want to remove first listing, to get rid of old stuff - is that correct, you think?

[Carver]

I uninstall the old first, then install the new. The chain is only as strong as the weakest link, the two copys of Java can't be on the same computer at the same time.

[ASpace]

I'm not sure what you are talking about but both of these versions are outdated

The latest is 5.0 Update 8

What I do is to remove them both from Control Panel -> Add/Remove programs and later manually remove the folder Java in C:\Program files

After that you can install the latest version if you want . Do the above for every update of this program :thumb:

[MikeBCda]

You can hang onto whatever old stuff is under Docs/Settings, if you like -- that's where saved options and cached applets (if you use them) go. And as far as I know those aren't a security problem.

[Meriadoc]

-{ Quote: "Saw in news feed the other day, that when updating Sun Java J2SE runtime environment that the old ver. is left intact, and may be subj. (however unlikely to takeover by bad guys, exploiting older ver. even tho' you have new/improved/more secure ver. installed). I'd gather then, that it's best to uninstall old ver. In case of below screencap, I would want to remove first listing, to get rid of old stuff - is that correct, you think?" }-

Yes, always get rid of older versions.
The best thing would be to go and get the manual download (as the update program is buggy) then go back and validate.
http://www.java.com/en/download/manual.jsp
The latest is as hi-tech boy posted version 8 although recently the download page was showing version 6 again.

[ccsito]

Tha is very odd. I downloaded version 1.5.7 back in May and now the website shows version 6 as current??? ??? Was there something wrong with the later versions that made them fallback to an earlier one?

[Meriadoc]

-{ Quote: "Tha is very odd. I downloaded version 1.5.7 back in May and now the website shows version 6 as current??? ??? Was there something wrong with the later versions that made them fallback to an earlier one?" }-
I put it down to a website update, I've seen nothing else. You can look in 'Add and Remove Programs' for your version or go validate at the site.

edit: I'm sure it said 6 when I updated a friends machine the other day, but showed update 8 under validation.

[TOMxEU]

JRE 5 Update 8 Download (http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp). In second window click on Accept and Continue to be able to DL.

[ccsito]

Thanks for the information. It looks like they renumbered the program versions to make it more confusing. :blink: I guess I now have 5.0 version 7 (or previously 1.5.0_7) . On another machine I see 1.4.2_4 version which appears to be old (the older versions of Java had a flaw that allowed a Trojan program to get on one of my PCs) >:(

[TOMxEU]

Yeah, they like to do it as confusing as possible. Eg on Softpedia the newest version of JRE is marked as Sun Java JRE 1.4.2.12 (http://www.softpedia.com/get/Programming/SDK-DDK/Sun-Java-JRE.shtml), I honestly did not know, which to download and instal. http://www.wilderssecurity.com/images/smilies/unsure.gif

[ccsito]

I noticed that with some other programs where different versions are listed. Most people say go to the author's website to get the most recent version, but that is not necessarily accurate 100% of the time. Java's own website still offers the 1.4 versions as well as the 5.0 (formerly 1.5) and version 6 beta. I think version 5.0 (again you wonder why they renumbered the program) appears to be the most "current".

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/relnotes/features.html

This appears to be the current download page for Java. JRE Version 5.0.8 appears to be the latest release.

http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp

[Trooper]

Interesting that the website is showing version 6. But you guys are saying that regardless if I install it I will actually be installing version 8?

[ronjor]

Version 8 here I believe. http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp

-{ Quote: "Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 5.0 Update 8
The J2SE Runtime Environment (JRE) allows end-users to run Java applications." }-

[ccsito]

Originally posted by Trooper

-{ Quote: "Interesting that the website is showing version 6. But you guys are saying that regardless if I install it I will actually be installing version 8?" }-

You have to be aware that Java.com lists another version from java.sun.com. Java.sun.com appears to be the main company website (it also lists all of the program versions), while java.com and java.net are some kind of affilliate websites. The main company information (Sun Microsystems) is at java.sun.com. The other two sites can be considered to be "non-techie" oriented sites. I don't know who is responsible for updating the other two sites. But my guess is either they neglected to update the link to version 8 or they consider version 6 to be the best for the general public? ???

[TOMxEU]

Azureus needs JRE and it works fine with JRE Update 8, so it has to be the same product.
Heh, actually on the Azureus download page (http://azureus.sourceforge.net/download.php), they offer JRE Update 7, so which to choose?!

[ccsito]

If you want to get the entire history of all of the Java versions, you can start on this link. Happy reading. ::)

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/index.jsp

Here are the release notes. More happy reading.

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/ReleaseNotes.html

[Meriadoc]

version 9

-{ Quote: "Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 5.0 Update 9
The J2SE Runtime Environment (JRE) allows end-users to run Java applications" }-

[TOMxEU]

Thanks for the info. I am going to download it right away. ;)

[phasechange]

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=34782 looks like it's not just Linux users having problems with Sun's maintainance of their web presence.

[Cerxes]

-{ Quote: "I uninstall the old first, then install the new. The chain is only as strong as the weakest link, the two copys of Java can't be on the same computer at the same time." }-

I´m a Sun Java developer, and your statement is wrong since you do can have several runtime engines at the same computer if you want to, since some times you have to devolope apps for older machines, then you can´t use the latest runtime engine for it slows down to much.

About the security issue, it´s correct that for the end user, it´s best to uninstall previous version. You do that true controllpanel/uninstall and reboot, then you remove the Java folder in program files, and then you remove the two Sun folders in document and settings, and finally you should do a registry cleaning. :gack: 8) I guarantee, there will be no more previous versions... ;D

Regards, C.

[phasechange]

-{ Quote: "Saw in news feed the other day, that when updating Sun Java J2SE runtime environment that the old ver. is left intact, and may be subj. (however unlikely to takeover by bad guys, exploiting older ver. even tho' you have new/improved/more secure ver. installed). I'd gather then, that it's best to uninstall old ver. In case of below screencap, I would want to remove first listing, to get rid of old stuff - is that correct, you think?" }-

arghhh sub pixel antialiasing... is that ClearType that you are using or is it Linux with subpixel enabled? It makes my eyes stream!