On Thu, 9 Mar 2000, Ron Golan wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 09, 2000 at 11:03:15AM -0500, Wade Hampton wrote:
> > Yesterday, I upgraded to the released NS 4.72 packages. Same D*&^
> > problem with Java. Netscape crashed at least 4-5 times (especially
[snip]
>
> Its apparent that lots of people are have stability problems with
> Netscape on Linux. I am not and I'm wondering why. It might be that I
> don't use Communicator, only Navigator. It also might be that I don't
> visit the sites that seem to use a lot of JavaScript.
The major problem is with different and incompatible versions of Java
on Linux and at many, but not all web sites. JDK 1.2 is the most recent
version of Java, but 1.2 support is not really there yet. That is why
even Mozilla has the same problems of crashing when you get to certain
Java pages. Again, the problem isn't Java, per se, but incompatible
versions between client and server. If Ron Golan goes to certain pages,
even he will crash (unless he's turned off Java).
It's not even only entertainment and motion/video snazzy effects pages
that use Java these days. Bread and butter stuff, too. In my case,
I need access to my University's trouble ticket system (Remedy). Remedy
has a java client, but has recently changed it over to JDK 1.2. With their
1.1 interface, I was able to update tickets just fine. Now, I can't.
In fact, it freezes my X-session. Java is increasingly being used instead
of Perl CGI's for web front-end (as well as native java client apps
instead of web browsers and applets) to bread and butter apps. Great idea,
in theory, but in current practice, the incompatibilties between 1.1 and 1.2
have been a big problem. This will stabilize, but not soon enough for us,
right?
By the way, the problem exists for older versions of Netscape on Doze boxen.
If you don't have the most current netscape java plug-in, you will have
trouble at those java 1.2 sites. However, at least the java plug-in
EXISTS for Doze.
The bigger problem is one of getting a good JDK on Linux.
(RedHat on alphas is also having a problem, with reported licensing
problems with Sun.) Mozilla will hopefully grow up soon, but the
Java problems will persist. Even after the 1.2 problems are finally
resolved on linux, what about next time with 1.3 or 3.1 or...? How long the
delay between the Doze port and a working linux port?
There's surely nothing making Sun do it!
***************************************************************************
Jerry Winegarden OIT/Technical Support Duke University
[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www-jerry.oit.duke.edu
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