Next Release of Android Will Not Use Oracle's Proprietary Java APIs

It looks like Google is moving Android away from Oracle's Java APIs and will transition to OpenJDK for the next version of Android.

This could lead to applications being broken until they are re-written if they were dependent on those proprietary APIs.

 

[mikedt]

Might be done for security. Sun's Java on PCs was always insecure and often exploited by malicious websites, despite what it was supposed to be. Often recommend to remove Sun Java completely, unless you actually needed it. And then Sun became Oracle.

 

[svim]

Might be done for security. Sun's Java on PCs was always insecure and often exploited by malicious websites, despite what it was supposed to be. Often recommend to remove Sun Java completely, unless you actually needed it. And then Sun became Oracle.

Actually Sun's Java wasn't a horrible security risk, it's Oracle's Java that's become an issue. Sun's Java hasn't even been around for maybe five years or so, not since Oracle acquired the once venerable Sun Microsystems. And just to be specific, it's not even Java itself that's the real problem, it's the damned Java browser plugin that's the big security black hole. As long as that plugin isn't enabled in your browsers having Java installed on your computers isn't any more hazardous than most applications a typical consumer uses. Not a lot but some applications use Java apps (jar) for background functionality. Unfortunately the news media focuses on headline click-bait and very little on giving the public substantive information so whether it's the Java browser plugin, or Java runtime, or even the unrelated Javascript a lot of people still freak out over anything with 'Java' in it. Recommendations to 'remove Java' are overkill, it's only the plugin that's the actual problem.

Oh, and the whole Java Plugin fiasco is starting to just fizzle itself out anyway. Oracle has changed its policy and is making the browser plugin an opt-in selection. Also, the Java plugin is NPAPI based (Netscape Plugin API) and Mozilla is slowly phasing in a crack-down on crappy browser plugins. Google has already finished phasing out support for NPAPI plugins in favor of its own PPAPI (Pepper Plugin API) so Chrome/Chromium are Java plugin safe even if some hapless user actually wants to enable it.