MS JVM or Sun JVM?

[Aloke Prasad]

I'm installing XP Pro on a new PC I'm building. I have a choice of applying
the SP1 which includes MS JVM or SP1a which does not. With SP1a, I'll have
to install Sun's JVM.

Any opinions on which option is better? Who's JVM is more compatible with
WinXP Pro?

PS: on my current Win2000 system, I have both JVM's installed. IE6
sometimes locks up the computer tight (requiring a hard reset) when loading
the JVM. I don't know who's to blame for this.

Thanks.

 

[Chris Lanier]

Use Sun's. On January 2nd Microsoft will no longer release any type of
security patch's or fixes for it's version of Java.

 

[S.Sengupta]

Hi! Aloke,
Perhaps you are aware of the fact that due to legal issue MS is not
including JVM in XP; So you have to depend on Sun Java.Personllay, I
prefer MS’s implementation of the Java VM, if only because it is faster
than Sun’s JRE. I know computers are getting faster all the time, and
that Sun is more of a Unix company that a Wintel one, but it’d be nice
to have a more efficient Java platform. That way, more people might use it.
Regarding IE6 problem, that's a different issue.
All the best/
ssg/pronetworks.org

 

[Jim Byrd]

Hi Aloke - You can test whether Java is working on your machine at the
following
sites:

http://www.pocoso.de/pocoso052.html
http://www.clan.lib.ri.us/clan/javatest.html
http://www.fitwise.com/testjava.asp (both 1.0 and 1.1 and what's
installed)
http://coglab.wadsworth.com/support/browsercheck.html
http://www.ces.clemson.edu/webct/browser_detect.html

and you can test Javascript here:
http://www.dancespots.net/browsertest.htm

and check whether you have the MS VM installed and which version here:
http://www.visualware.com/support/javasupport.html

Be aware, however, that after Jan 2, 2004, MS will apparently no longer
be distributing Java or providing any support for Java including
security fixes. (It's unclear as to how 6/26/03 court decision will
affect this) See here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/evaluation/news/jre.asp, and
http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/java/ so you
might want to start thinking about the future.

You can get the Sun Java J2SE RunTimes or SDK here:
http://java.sun.com/downloads/index.html (all versions - select using
the dropdown)

Sun also offers an automatic download and install of the 1.4 Java
plug-in here: http://java.sun.com/getjava/download.html



For the MS Java VM, you may need to install v.3809 prior to upgrading
to v. 3810 if you didn't previous have MS Java v. 3805 or 3809
installed.

If your OS is Win2000 SP2, SP3 but NOT SP4 then you can download and
install the MS Java VM v. 3809 from here:
http://download.windowsupdate.com/m..._510A502BA8F9B6F19230BB2BCCE87D5474AC9DCD.exe
or here:
http://www.biologylab.awlonline.com...icrosoft.Q810030_W2K_SP4_5849/Q810030_W2K.exe

For Win2000 SP4, you'll need to re-install v.3805, from here:
http://www.nhyrvana.com/files/pop.cgi?file=win2kmsjavx86.zip It will
download as Pop.zip. Just unzip it and then execute the resultant
msjavx86. This is the only version that I know of that will re-install
under SP4.

For all other OS's:

Download and install the MS Java VM v. 3809 from one of the links here:
http://www.nhyrvana.com/files/pop.cgi?file=3809.exe (it will be named
pop.exe), or here:
http://www.biologylab.awlonline.com...XP/com_microsoft.javavm_3809_5853/msjavwu.exe,
or here:
http://secinfo.huji.ac.il/patches/Win-xp/msjavwu.exe


Then upgrade to v. 3810:

For all OS's except Win2k, obtain v. 3810 here:
http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail.php3?fid=1050022631

For all versions of Win2k - SP2, SP3 or SP4 - obtain v. 3810 here:
http://download.microsoft.com/downl...-9b18-423356321682/Q816093_W2K_SP4_X86_EN.exe

Both Java VM's can co-exist on your machine quite nicely. Just select
which one you want to use in Tools|Internet Options|Advanced and restart
all IE browsers. Here, courtesy of Michel Gallant, MVP Security, is a
tiny utility which allows you to toggle and view status of your current
Java VM vendor associated with IE:
http://pages.istar.ca/~neutron/SelectIEJVM

A note from Mitch Gallant:

"One note about the JVM Selector utility:
If/when you install a new version of Sun J2SE, you need to manually
select to have Sun JVM as default JVM for IE (in install), or after
install
via the JavaPlugin control panel. This generates the necessary win32
registry
entries, which must be present for the utility to know about JavaPlugin.
After that, the utility should work properly."



--
Please respond in the same thread.
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP



In

 

[Alex Nichol]

I'm installing XP Pro on a new PC I'm building. I have a choice of applying
the SP1 which includes MS JVM or SP1a which does not. With SP1a, I'll have
to install Sun's JVM.

Any opinions on which option is better? Who's JVM is more compatible with
WinXP Pro?

There are some sites that only work properly if you have MS Java (hence
the lawsuit); some which may work better with Sun's. I would install
both. The Sun one then has an applet that allows you to make/unmake it
the one to use for IE or for Netscape. So a possibility is to have
Netscape (or Opera, which comes with Sun Java) using Sun for those sites
that need it and IE, using the MS engine for others