XYMer's Home away from Home

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1550

I keep Java disabled in all browsers and in Java Preferences, but I'm having trouble understanding just what the implications of this are. If the Java web plugin "deactivates" (after not being run for a certain period of time), what exactly does that mean and what happens if and when I want to run a Java applet somewhere? How does it become re-activated? And from what I've read -- is this right? -- this update doesn't seem to involve a newer, patched version of Java beyond the 1.6.0_31, which I already have. If it did, I wouldn't hesitate to install it. So since I keep Java disabled anyway do I pass?

EDIT: looks like it really is a new, patched Java

http://krebsonsecurity.com/tag/java-for ... -update-9/

I chose not to install it, it's so ambiguous... & I think you & I have enough protection to forego it, methinks Apple is just narrowing things to Apple only.

I would recommend installing it, if only to celebrate that Apple actually released a Java update within a month of the Sun release.

If you don't use Java it won't affect you. If you do use it, then the update will be beneficial.

- Anonymous

A curiosity, or maybe not:

I finished installing the combo update 10.6.8v1.1 to my iMac just before Java Update 9 came out and hence SU showed I needed Update 8, which I installed. It now shows I need Update 9 - no problem, that's logical.

On Mr H's MBP, I just installed the combo update yesterday, after finally updating the MBP from Tiger to SL. I checked SU which shows Java Update 9 - so, does 9 include all the goodies that were in 8?

I assume the answer is yes, but I'm asking anyway before I circumvent 8 and go directly to 9.

Thanks,

_________________
Mrs H

Hmmm, used to be that Java updates needed to be installed in order, unlike Security updates that included all previous Security updates... no idea if this has changed now.

I thought so too which is why both of these puzzled me.
On the iMac before I installed SL, the last Java update I had done was not 7 and yet it listed update 8 in SU and none before it. I doubt very much if 1-7 (or whatever) were in the old release of the combo updater 10.6.8v1.1 included current to the minute Java updates.

The real curiosity is the one on the MBP. No harm will be done if I install update 8 first, I assume.
I could go back even further from where I left off...???

I'm using the downloads I did for the iMac and transfering them to the MBP to do all the updates - faster than downloading the big things again. I'm not installing directly from the external with the download copies on it, since that would mean keeping a peripheral connected during an update.

Do 8?
Go back as early as I can?
Or, yet again, trust that SU knows what it's talking about (which I believe less and less, still worried about that Lion EFI update which I have yet to call Apple about)

Thanks,

_________________
Mrs H

I'd do 8 myself.

If 9 showed up and 8 didn't, you may assume it has all the fixes of the prior updater. Rolled up security fixes have been standard operating procedure for quite a while now with OS X.

- Anonymous

Yeah, Java updates in 10.4 & 10.5 were a nightmarish progression of update after update after update after update after update after update, but the last couple releases for 10.6 (at least) could take you straight to the latest version w/o intermediary steps.

Good to know. When you say security fixes that includes Java updates?

Thanks,

_________________
Mrs H

Thanks for the info.
I still am of the 10.4 mindset on many things I'm afraid. Went directly from Tiger to SL but my heart belongs to Tiger, sort of...

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Mrs H

Just stumbled across this tonight while downloading all the various updates that I have to push out ASAP due to my sick leave:
http://jdk7.java.net/macportpreview/

It's a preview (early release, possibly alpha or beta) of the Java 1.7 ("Java 7") release 6.

I wouldn't install it unless you have some software development or testing experience, since it's likely to not be ready for prime time, but it sounds like they'd like people to test it with the Java software they use and report back with any problems.

This is new. Here's what gets deactivated after a while and can be reactivated. Even though I keep Java disabled up the wazoo, I've installed it, since it includes patches for new vulnerabilities, and never know when I may have to run an applet. Actually, just needed to the other day. And, yes, it includes the previous updates.

Thanks, that's useful info!

- Anonymous

The latest Java update seems to have caused problems for FCP Server, maybe that's it!?

https://discussions.apple.com/message/18650421#18650421

I just did a fresh install of 10.6 on an iMac (HD had tons of bad sectors so I swapped in a replacement), and it went straight from 10.6. um 3 I think to Java Update 9.

So definitely no worries and a welcome change from ye olden Macs of yore.

Thanks for this info and for the screen shot.
You're leaving that unchecked, yes?

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Mrs H

I would agree and WZZZ confirms that above. Thanks WZZZ.


I'm just not trusting SU these days, until I get confirmation that the EFI update it's suggesting is right for my iMac running SL (when the syst requirements on the download page say Lion is required).

SU also shows 2 versions of Airport Utility Update for the MBP - I'll download and do in order but strange it'd show both and not just the first and then the second after I installed the first.

Speaking of Airport Utility, installing it on the iMac resulted in intermittent connectivity loss on Ethernet when the iMac wakes from a long sleep - no connection between Airport and Ethernet, but things are wacky here. I'm still reading all 23 pages of https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2258749?start=0&tstart=0 to see if there's a pattern. Our local ISP suggested a new modem which they gave me but it has the same issue - obviously it's my iMac. WiFi for the iMac works fine. They've suggested a 5 point plan to follow to test out where the problem is, we'll see what that does - I have no faith anymore.

_________________
Mrs H

Apple says Lion is required for a bunch of recent updates, I think primarily to fulfill their secret desire for everyone to upgrade to Lion.

Yeah, if Apple shoves a firmware update down SU to 10.6 machines that kills your ability to run 10.6 and forces you to upgrade to10.7, then file a lawsuit. That should be easy because the lawyers will leap at the prospect of a class action suit. Think of class action lawsuits having the same effect on lawyers as scratching "just that place" has on a dog. They also make cute noises, so it really is something to look forward to.

Apple would be abysmally stupid to try that.

I think it's much more likely that the beast is too big to know what each end is doing, or just doesn't care, or is inefficient and sloppy with poor management of this kind of information, or assumes that no one reads this stuff, or what monkeyboy said, or something like that. I have much, much more faith in Software Update than I do in the intern who posted the system requirements on the web page.

- Anonymous