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How to kill Java dead, dead, dead

Why client-side Java must be eliminated despite its widespread use

By Galen Gruman, InfoWorld, 01/15/13

Page 3 of 3

The feds can help. Regulations for financial, utility, transportation, aerospace, and medical providers could designate the non-Java-free operating systems as noncompliant to security standards for gaining or renewing government contracts. Local governments would follow suit. That'd unleash a tidal wave of Java-free app updates. Loss of income is the motivation that vendors and developers need.

Of course, such dramatic action is unlikely given the government's hesitancy to interrupt the profit flow of its main owners -- er, contributors. But there may be a backup plan that's happening quietly even today: the move from traditional PC technologies like Windows to mobile ones like iOS and Android. The major mobile operating systems do not run Java apps or Java Web plug-ins. Migrating from PCs to iPads -- or making tablets a standard computing platform alongside PCs -- could be the quickest way to get rid of Java and force developers to stop using it.

If Microsoft and Apple don't make Windows and OS X Java-free platforms like iOS, Metro, and Android, client-side Java will still probably disappear over time even as Oracle tries to patch the technology in the usual security war of attrition. It just won't disappear fast enough.

We can't wait much longer. In an era where the United States and Israel have launched a quiet cyber war against Iran and others with worms like Stuxnet, and Iran has counterattacked by trying to take down U.S. banks' websites, it won't be long before Java is used like the lax airline security was on 9/11 to make something really bad happen. Already, Java flaws helped an unknown country spy undetected for five years on at least 39 nations -- the Red October hack. Stop it now.

This story, "How to kill Java dead, dead, dead," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Get the first word on what the important tech news really means with the InfoWorld Tech Watch blog. For the latest developments in business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.

For more enterprise computing news, visit InfoWorld. Story copyright InfoWorld Media Group, Inc.