Apple Sucks Again

Update.-- There are two updates to this post. First, there is a fix to Safari, which you can find here, but better yet, Oracle released an update today (Feb. 1, 2012) which fixes Apple's concerns.

If you have Java already, just open the Java window in your Apple preferences, it will show the update ready to download and install. If you don't have Java, then go to Oracle Website for Java to install it.

Original Post.-- Yeah, I'm a little late and a little short with this rant against Apple, although overall I like their products, it's their decisions overriding users' interest which angers me. And what pray tell is my mindless complaint?

Apple has disabled java from running in Safari 6.0.2 and will continue to do so until Oracle fixes Java 7 for the most recent hacker attack which exploits a hole in Java 7. There is no news when Oracle will fix  Java 7 as they just released an update for the previous holes.

What this means is that if you have Java, it won't run with Safari 6.0.2, and as you will find some actions on Web pages, such "visit original page" for Google's image search engine and some user logins, won't work.

That sucks, because Java is not blocked on other browsers on your Mac. You can simply use them, eg. Chrome, Firefox, Chromium, Opera, OmniWeb, etc., for the same thing because Java is not blocked in those browers.

How swift is that Apple? Just ask users to use a different browser, not yours? Brillant marketing. Why not give the user a choice instead of acting like you know better than them. This is true since they can simply use another browser.

But wait, Apple does give them a choice in the Safari preferences but Apple overrides it in the system library file(s). You can look this up but the fix suggested by the Websites doesn't work as Apple seems to have embedded it elsewhere too.

I know there are people vehemetly against Java and the use of the plugin for browsers, but the reality is that it's a commonly used application for many Websites, and for some it's critical to their customers, clients, etal and their business.

So how about it Oracle and Apple? Stop fighting and fix it so we can get on with the tasks in our lives which requires Java with Safari. The people aren't the enemy, you're just being it against us.