Java is necessary in order to run many of the programs we use every day with our computers, be it through the Internet, to run games and applications or sometimes even productivity suites. The developer’s version of Java costs money when programs are developed for commercial purposes, but the Java runtime we all have on our PCs is provided free by Oracle.
Or is it?
Oracle had been bundling their Java redistributable with something called “Ask Toolbar” and you really have to ask yourself the question, when’s the last time a toolbar was helpful for anything other than using up a narrow horizontal band of your monitor real estate?
Never.
So, change.org, an online watchdog organization has been pushing a petition to get Oracle to stop bundling the Ask Toolbar malware – because that’s essentially what it is – with their installer.
Incredibly, Oracle acquiesced to the request, but replaced the Ask Toolbar by an even less agreeable package called “McAfee Security Scan” which is really another malware. Sure, it’s easy to uninstall, just go to your control panel and remove it from the Programs dialog box but while it’s there, it can prevent you from accessing specific webpages as targeted by McAfee, enable your Windows firewall potentially locking you out of remote controlling your PC or worse, block your Internet altogether.
So with that, I’m adding “Names of foods not used for an actual food product” to my list of criteria by which you can anticipate that the company associated with, will suck badly. A list that had already been populated by the following criteria:
-Anything that has the words “Pro”, “Total”, or “Expert” in its name
-Anything whose name ends with “…us”
-Anything that has a four digit number in it like 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, etc.
-Anything that has tech buzzwords in the company name, like toolbar, ip telephone, touchscreen or my personal favorite: cloud.
With that, I have to mention that in the previous iteration of the Java installer, they mentioned that Java is everywhere, your cellphone, your car, and it’s even used to navigate airplanes.
Java, can’t live with it, can’t force Oracle to remove ALL the crapware from their installer.
