Why do I need Java?

[St Phil]

I'm using a laptop without much installed (yet...) while I sort or replace a tower. I find I'm getting blank places asking me to download plugins. These places don't seem to affect my use of the page. I suspect them of being either Flash or Java. Java is desperately wanting me to update to 10 but I'm not going to until I find out why I should. If these blank places are adverts or unnecessary showing off by web designers (I dislike flashing, floating or twitching frippery), I'm quite happy to do without them. (I block adverts now as I have never clicked on one in about 12 years online, but some do get through.) I've asked a similar question on a Flash forum - here it is 'Why do I need Java?' Outside adverts and frippery, what does it do for me?

[gcalvin]

The Java Runtime Environment (JRE) allows you to run programs written in Java. It's quite possible that you don't need or want it. It's also possible that you already have it installed, and that you are being prompted to update to the latest version. If you do choose to have Java installed on your machine, you should update to the latest version, as most updates fix security problems. Unfortunately, the updates do consume disk space. You might find this article interesting:

When is it suitable to remove Java updates?

-Gary-

[St Phil]

:confused: Ta for that - but what sort of things are these applications? OpenOffice suite seems to want something in this line - can't remember if it's Java or JavaScript environment - but I'm not sure if it is essential. I don't go on YouTube, flickr or any other of those things; I use PowerDVD for DVDS, and JetAudio for .mpg and such.

[gcalvin]

OpenOffice is definitely a Java app, so if you want to run that, you will need a JRE. YouTube uses Flash, and is converting to HTML5 -- has nothing to do with Java. I don't think I've ever seen an ad written in Java -- it would be a very strange thing to do. Flash ads are quite common. Hope that helps.

-Gary-

[The_Sponzy_Paradox]

JRE allows you more program functionality, it incorporates various security improvements and patches bug fixes and the like. Firefox will let you shutdown java if you wish and you can hotkey the on/off so if you should wish to use it you can. I don't see any reason not to have it, it does not take up that much space in the grand scheme of things