Looking at some of our site statistics, it shows 82% of users reporting Java support enabled.  One must then ask, WHY?  Why do you have Java enabled?  Java is a cross-platform language that in terms of what it provides as a browser  is Java applet support.


Here are some examples of Java applets from Sun's website:

http://java.sun.com/applets/jdk/1.4/index.html


If you can see those, you ought to go and disable Java now.  For the most part, Java has disappeared from the web.  A few uses remain in some web-based games, and speedtests as an alternative to flash, but that's pretty much it.  There is no reason to have it enabled by default.


I frequent ChessGames.com which uses an applet to allow to view games, so I have it selectively enabled for that singular site.  This is what I would suggest to do with Java, if you need it at all in your web browser.

To do this in Firefox, you'll require the NoScript extension.  NoScript disables JavaScript, Java and other plug-ins and dynamic content by default, and allows you to selectively enable them.




If you just need to disable Java entirely, that's an options in your preferences (Edit->Preferences) under the Content tab.

To do this in Opera you'll need to go to your preferences (Toos->Preferences) then under the advanced tab go down to Content.  Disable Java system wide is an option there, which you'll want to do.  Then click Manage Site Preferences in order to selectively enable it.

To do this in Internet Explorer, I only have the option to globally disable Java, and no way to selectively enable it, as it's not an option for Trusted Zones.  For disabling Java, you'll go to Internet Options (Tools->Internet Options), then under the Advanced tab scroll down until you see "Use JRE 1.X.X for applet" and uncheck it.




Java has had a long history of security issues, and even that notwithstanding, the more plugins you have running, the more possibility there is for something to go wrong, as well as the more that has to be loaded.  For the majority of cases, I'd suspect Java goes completely unused, so letting any old site make it available is wasteful and potentially harmful.

That's more a rhetorical "why" to make others ask themselves the question, not that I didn't know.  Obviously people aren't going out of their way to enable it, it's just there by default provided Java is installed.  I'd also suspect the majority of those without it enabled just don't have Java installed at all.

Why the browsers have it enabled by default is also not surprising, as it's in order to make things streamlined.  People in general just want things to work without having to think.

I remember a very annoying java update that i never did...

I'm not ure that made sense.

Despite now using Linux primarily, I never personally had any instances of malware using Windows, so it's not really a practical concern, but best practice concern.

Not sure what the "Flash vs Apple" thing is, but if it's Apple not supporting the flash player on the iPhone, I think that's kind of a sucky move on their part considering they want to lock you into their own proprietary software to prevent you from doing it yourself.

Flash itself, though, I dislike on many levels.  Firstly, it's a plugin like Java, meaning it's inherently less secure as it's dependent on a non-standard separate development cycle and support than the browser.

Secondly, Adobe is a terrible company, at least security-wise and Linux-wise.  Their history is deplorable, and Flash support is still poor on Linux.  "Flash cookies" and the hidden nature of how they're handled is the newest affront to online privacy.

Thirdly, Flash is not an open standard, despite everyone using it.

It's an awful solution for video and needs to die in that regard, and the death of flash ads would be a bonus.  Hopefully HTML5 pushes that along if we could ever get a consensus on the codecs.