With browser plug-ins going the way of the dinosaur, Oracle plans to deprecate its Java browser plug-in in Java Development Kit 9, which is due in March 2017. The technology will then be completely removed from Oracle JDK and the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) in a future release of Java Standard Edition.
Oracle is encouraging developers to migrate Java Applets, which depend on a plug-in, to the plug-in-free Java Web Start technology. In a blog post this week, Oracle's Dalibor Topic noted this move away from plug-ins. "By late 2015, many browser vendors have either removed or announced timelines for the removal of standards-based plug-in support, eliminating the ability to embed Flash, Silverlight, Java, and other plug-in based technologies," he said.