Friday 6 March 2015

Oracle Java Download Add Ons, My non technical rant


Yesterday my UKOUG board college Bryan Foss shared this article with me about Oracle including  Ask Toolbar Add ons with Java downloads on Macs.

Ughhh!!

I am new to the MAC and one thing I really liked the idea of was no viruses. IDIOT, they may not be attacked as often as PCs but just this morning Facebook presented me with the MAC Defender download option for what I now know is (I was crafty, I googled malware on Mac before pressing a button, so proud of myself).

Another thing I didn't know was that Microsoft make it very difficult for an Oracle Professional who needs to use their add ons for office products to do so on a MAC. For Cloud Apps, the add ons I need have to be Office for Windows, so I am now the proud owner of a MAC, with Office for MAC and a Windows Virtual Image running Office. I have Java in that image and I had to go through the Ask download dance, and although I am not technical I thought I was doing OK, but I still went through a period of time of other malware crap (not a technical term but it will do).

There is no excuse for people to just accept the Ask Toolbar, I would suggest that you read the  comments on the above article, people have given alternative ways to download Java, how to reinstall and point out that windows users have had this for over a decade, and also that the practice started with Sun.

I am not apologising for Oracle, I think this stinks, it is bad practice and I am not happy, but we need to be careful with everything we download. And when the computer asks me if I trust the source, the answer here is NO.


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