Here’s Why Oracle Is Killing The Java Browser Plugin – A Good News For Plugin-free Web

Oracle has announced that it’s removing the Java browser plugin from its future releases. In its whitepaper, the company said that the rise of web usage on mobile devices has inspired the browser vendors to look for plugin-free technologies. This plugin has been repeatedly exploited to install malware and attack users during its lifetime.

The most popular web browsers like Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari don’t support plugins anymore. In a related development, Oracle has finally accepted that its Java plugin doesn’t fit in today’s world of plugin-free web. 

The company has announced that the Java browser plugin will be deplored when the next version of Java, Java Development Kit 9, will be released on September 22nd. In another future release, this plugin will be entirely removed.

With time, the modern web browsers have worked to reduce the plugin support on their browsers. As a result, the developers of applications that depend on Java browser plugin, need to look for plugin-freeJava Web Start technology.

Rise of mobile web usage has killed the need of plugins

“The Oracle JRE can only support applets on browsers for as long as browser vendors provide the requisite cross-browser standards-based plugin API (eg NPAPI) support,” the company says.

Due to the rise of plugin-free web usage on mobile devices, the browser vendors are looking to remove the standard plugin support from their products. By doing this, the companies are looking to unify the features on mobile and desktop versions.

“Without a cross-browser API, Oracle would only be able to offer a subset of the required functionality, different from one browser to the next, impacting both application developers and users,” the company says.

Just like the infamous Flash plugin, Oracle’s Java plugin is known for being a huge security vulnerability. This plugin has been repeatedly exploited to install malware and attack users during its lifetime.

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— Oracle Blog