Is Java WebStart Deprecated?

[Robert Zenz]

As others have already pointed out, and I can only reiterate, the app store
model is correct when you are concerned with getting (Java) applications to
random "end" users.

However, many of us are not concerned with how we get our application onto the
PC of some random guy in Hong Kong who just wants to try it. We are concerned
with getting it on several thousand systems in a controlled environment that
might or might not be (physically) connected to the Internet and might or might
not be in several different locations (or continents). Deployments in large
companies and corporations for example. For this, applets were great, JNLP is
just as great, having to create individual packages and manually installing them
on every system (or relying on the user to do it), not so great.

If OS developers decide to lock their system down to a point in which it is not
possible anymore to install software without using their delivery methods
(whatever that might be), then we'd need a different mechanism (as outlined in
this thread) to deliver these applications. However, there is also a good chance
that these OSs would simply be dropped, because I can't imagine that companies
would like to put their several hundred man years ERP system into public app
stores. This is a future that is possible, and that there are plans for it is
great. But right now, and in the near future, we are dealing with a completely
different set of problems, ones which were handled quite well with applets/JNLP.


On 06.11.2017 15:26, Donald Smith wrote:
> Hi Michael,
>
> No doubt this was true, but the OSes have shifted hard and fast away from this
> model.  The "app store" model is now it.  macOS has been ratcheting this down
> hard for several years now.  MSFT -- even in the enterprise market -- has
> signaled this direction as well.  For sure we need to find options to support
> the legacy, but the future here is limited.
>
>  - Don