On Wed, Aug 7, 2013 at 3:44 AM, Oliver-Rainer Wittmann <orwittm...@googlemail.com> wrote: > Hi, > > I would like to discuss here, if we drop the support for Java 5 and Java 6 > for AOO installation on Windows. > Important note for discussion: it is all about platform Windows. > > On my work to update the AOO build environment for Windows I recognized that > it is hard to get an official JDK 1.5 (Java 5) or JDK 1.6 (Java 6) for > Windows. Thus, I decided to go with JDK 1.7. The resulting AOO installation > on Windows no longer works together with an JRE 6. It does not recognize an > installed JRE 6 as an valid Java runtime environment. > Thus, it comes into my mind to drop the support for Java 5 and Java 6 for > Windows. >
Another perspective to consider: What leads to the most secure build environment for our binaries? I don't think we want to ever be building binaries that millions of users download, that are built on a machine with an unsupported JRE that is no longer receiving security patches. A build machine should be full patched against known security issues. And of course it should be used only for building, not for daily email and web browsing. So I think we should use JDK 1.7 for our builds. If that breaks Java 5 and Java 6 compatibility for end users, then this is unfortunate, but justifiable. We'll face a similar issue of this sort in April 2014, when Windows XP reaches End of Support by Microsoft. Do we then continue to support AOO on XP? Do we test with it? Perhaps. But we certainly would not build our binaries on XP, right? Regards, -Rob > Some discussion already took place in the thread about my update on the AOO > build environment for Windows. Here are the original statements: > <cite> >>>>> >>>>> From Oliver: >>>>> On a Windows system with JRE 6 the installation of my build does not >>>>> recognize installed JRE 6 as an Java runtime environment (Menu - Tools >>>>> - >>>>> Option - Java). This is no problem from my point of view as our Windows >>>>> users should not have JRE 6 installed anymore on their systems due to >>>>> its security risks. Does somebody contradicts? >>>> >>>> >>>> From Andrea: >>>> As far as I know, this would be a significant limitation. We can now >>>> build with Java 5, 6 or 7 and the build can work with Java 5, 6 or 7 >>>> (regardless of the version used for building). Restricting this would >>>> require discussion, especially on less common platforms. >>>> >>> >>> From Oliver: >>> I agree that it would be a restriction, but due to the security risks of >>> Oracle's JRE 6 I do not think that such a restriction hurts. In contrast >>> it would 'help' our Windows users to update their Java environment. >>> >>> Thus, let us start a new thread to discuss this topic. >> >> >> FromJürgen: >> we should think how relevant it is and if we have more work to support >> it. As Oliver pointed out, the latest security problems of Java result >> in probably many updated systems. I don't see that Java 5 or 6 is >> important in the future and we should focus on the future. > > </cite> > > My arguements for a drop of the Java 5 and Java 6 support on Windows are: > - JRE 5 is quite old and no longer officially available > - JRE 6 is no longer officially available > - JRE 6 has certain security risks and the corresponding tools on Widnows > are reporting to update to JRE 7 > - Simplify our work as we do not need to test under Windows JRE 5 and JRE 6 > > I currently see no need to support JRE 5 or JRE 6 in our future releases for > Windows. > > Let us discuss openly more Pros and Cons on this topic. > > > Best regards, Oliver. > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@openoffice.apache.org > For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@openoffice.apache.org > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@openoffice.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@openoffice.apache.org
