Chrome starts pushing Java off the Web by disabling plugins

[Lord Nemesis]

http://arstechnica.com/information-...ushing-java-off-the-web-by-disabling-plugins/

Chrome 42, released to the stable channel today, will take a big step toward pushing old browser plugins, including Java and Silverlight, off the Web. Those plugins use a 1990s-era API called NPAPI ("Netscape Plugin API") to extend the browser, and with Chrome 42, that API is now off by default.

For the time being, end users who really need to use these plugins will still be able to do so. The browser has a setting to re-enable the API, and administrators will be able to use Chrome'senterprise policies to enable it too. However, this is time limited: in September, Google plans to remove NPAPI support entirely. Chrome on Linux removed support in version 35, and its mobile browsers don't support it either.

Google is phasing out NPAPI because the it says that it's a big cause of "hangs, crashes, security incidents, and code complexity." The company suggests that developers who were using NPAPI either use Web standards instead—the once Silverlight-dependent Netflix, for example, now usesEncrypted Media Extensions in conjunction with HTML5 video—or Google's own proprietary extension systems, such as the NaCl Native client.

These other extension mechanisms have been built to play better with Chrome's sandboxing system.Since 2010, Chrome's Flash support, for example, used an alternative Chrome API called Pepper/PPAPI, meaning that it is unaffected by today's change.

Safari and Firefox continue to support NPAPI. Internet Explorer did once, but dropped it in version 5.5 Service Pack 2.

Just in case you need to enable NPAPI plugin support for Java applets or any other plugin, you need to go to chrome://flags and enable the flag named "Enable NPAPI"

This does not impact Flash support in Chrome as it uses a embedded PPAPI version of flash runtime rather than the NPAPI version used by Firefox.

 

[ReVo_007]

I was also reading this the other day , I cant figure out if its good or not , and is this NPAPI plugin ,the reason for which sometimes the FF becomes unresponsive ??

 

[Lord Nemesis]

^^ The plugin gets loaded only when the corresponding content is present in the web page being loaded. For the Java Plugin to load, there just be a java applet on the page. So just the presence of the plugin files do not cause the browser to become unstable.

Java plugin has been particularly unstable and ever since Oracle took over Sun. So for the most part killing it off is a good idea in my opinion. Chrome already bundles the PPAPI version of Flash and takes of silently updating it as and when update comes out. Java is not used as much as chrome. In fact, After flash, the most used runtime in Chrome currently is Silverlight.

In any case, from Google's perspective, they might also be thinking that they are killing the technologies like Silverlight and Java which are from their rivals.

 

[dpandey]

Is there a JVM plugin with the new API?

The ability to write a java applets is a useful. I am assuming writing flash apps will involve paying money to Adobe.

 

[ReVo_007]

^^ The plugin gets loaded only when the corresponding content is present in the web page being loaded. For the Java Plugin to load, there just be a java applet on the page. So just the presence of the plugin files do not cause the browser to become unstable.

Java plugin has been particularly unstable and ever since Oracle took over Sun. So for the most part killing it off is a good idea in my opinion. Chrome already bundles the PPAPI version of Flash and takes of silently updating it as and when update comes out. Java is not used as much as chrome. In fact, After flash, the most used runtime in Chrome currently is Silverlight.

In any case, from Google's perspective, they might also be thinking that they are killing the technologies like Silverlight and Java which are from their rivals.

is it only JAVA applets that need it ? from the idea i got even download managers like uGet and free alternative on windows use the NPAPI plugin to work .Thats the only scope I read about NPAPI . There used to be a download manager plugin on chrome previously which doesn't work now due to this , which make its hard to integrate 3rd party download managers on Linux atleast.

 

[Lord Nemesis]

Oracle has no plans to make a PPAPI version of the plugin.

Also, unlike flash, java as no reason to exist on the web anymore. Its only excuse for existence is legacy applets and its a good idea to kill them by killing the support for the plugin. Its for the best considering that Oracle is not committed towards maintaining the plugin support in a serious manner.

 

[Lord Nemesis]

is it only JAVA applets that need it ? from the idea i got even download managers like uGet and free alternative on windows use the NPAPI plugin to work .Thats the only scope I read about NPAPI . There used to be a download manager plugin on chrome previously which doesn't work now due to this , which make its hard to integrate 3rd party download managers on Linux atleast.

No, All plugins that use NPAPI would stop working in chrome. Silverlight, Quicktime are other examples of such plugins. NPAPI stands for Netscape Plugin API. It was designed as an open interface for browser plugins. It is the API used by all Firefox plugins. Any other browser that implements support for the API will be able to use the same plugins. Chrome supported it initially to get the support of existing Firefox plugins, but they later enhanced the whole API and named it Pepper API (PPAPI). PPAPI is supposed to be a more secure and stable interface for plugins and Google wants to promote its use over the NPAPI.

 

[mk76]

May be OT and a noob question. Is it worth learning Java now? What are the web standards being referred to in Google comment?

 

[pauldmps]

MS & Apple would probably update its plugins. Java applets need to die for good. They are ancient, slow, insecure & asks to download newer version of Java every now & then.

May be OT and a noob question. Is it worth learning Java now? What are the web standards being referred to in Google comment?

Absolutely. Its just the applets that have already been phased out. The programming language still remains strong.[DOUBLEPOST=1429412962][/DOUBLEPOST]I could find other NPAPI plugins that include Office Sharepoint, VLC web & Adobe reader. Even Google Update plugin is NPAPI.

 

[Lord Nemesis]

May be OT and a noob question. Is it worth learning Java now? What are the web standards being referred to in Google comment?

Only Applet technology is going to disappear from the web side of things. JVM as a server platform is still going strong and going to be around for a long time. Java as a language however, not so much. While the language is evolving with each release and slowly catching up to C#, programmers are gradually moving towards other alternatives like Scala.

In fact, even JVM itself has competition these days in the form of node.js. It is easy and fast to write server code with node.js and it fit in well concepts of agile development methodologies. Couple of years back, spending 20 min writing 80 lines of Java Script code, I replicated the functionality of commercial java based server technology for which its developer was asking $800k for a 3 year license.

 

[Ng Wei Khang]

Yes, I also read the same news and The Netscape-era NPAPI is now off by default in Chrome.