open-source alternatives to Java and Flash

[Daniel Robitaille]

> > I was looking at the very few non-free software still left on my
> > Ubuntu machine, and I was wondering what kind of open-source
> > alternative currently exist for Java and Flash for browsing the web,
> > preferably available in main or universe.  And if anyone has good (or
> > bad) experience on how they compare to the non-free versions?
> 
> See
> 
> http://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/RestrictedFormats
> http://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/Java
> 
> Unfortunately, you must resort to non-free software (that is thus
> outside the Ubuntu repository) if you need access to flash/java-based
> sites.

After sending my e-mail, I did a bit of research about all this. 
While something like Kaffe is easily available to provide a command
"java" on a system, the plugin part for the web browser seems to be
very much a work in progress, and doesn't seem to have been  updated
in the last 2 years:
http://www.kaffe.org/ftp/pub/packages/kaffe-mozilla-oji/

I haven't tried it yet, but I'm guessing it is not in a usable state. 

I couldn't find anything else remotely related to providing a java
plugin for Mozilla-style browsers.  Another intersting package,
available from universe, is the free-java-sdk debian package, which
claim is to provide a complete free Java environment.  But again as
well no obvious sign of a plugin usable by Firefox.


As for flash, there is a GPL Flash LIbrary:
http://www.swift-tools.net/Flash/

I'm having problem correctly compiling it; and as well it seems work
on it has been stopped 4 years ago. So it seems unlikely that it will
correctly work at the end. And even if it works, that's pretty much
old flash technology.

I guess the bottom line is that Sun's Java and Macromedia Flash is
there to stay on my machine.