This morning I updated Java (JRE) on my Windows computer for the last time. Every update comes with some worthless bundled software, this one in particular has the Ask.com toolbar. Usually I catch these crappy bundles, which always come pre-checked for installation, but today I missed it. I really dislike the idea of having to watch that my computer isn’t torpedoed with worthless programs every time I update my computer, so I went searching for alternatives. This kind of behavior puts Oracle as a company in the same group as spammers and virus makers in my view. I quickly found others who are disgruntled by Oracle’s disservice of an existance here and here.

I found there are a few solutions to this problem. The first is to stick with Oracle Java and install the ‘developer’ version of the Java Runtime Environment, called ” Windows x86 Offline” (File name ending in “-windows-i586.exe”), available here. Another option is a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) made by IBM. Unfortunately, this is not available as a standalone package for Windows… To use this one you must install IBM’s programming IDE called Eclipse. I looked into a third option, which i would have chosen personally, called OpenJDK. While there is a Windows installer here, it does not include a browser plugin.

In the end, I’ve decided to go without a web plugin, and have OpenJDK installed should any program outside my web browser need Java to run.