Java applets will be dropped from Java 8 with end of NPAPI support in MSIE

It is a well-known joking truth that any current program is outdated. Indeed, when dealing with a software product, one must always be prepared for the fact that in some foreseeable future it will become a story that only Wikipedia pages will remember. Apparently, the technology of java applets, which was quite popular in the old days, came close to this.

Indeed, the main thing that was warned about in the document “Oracle Java SE Support Roadmap” has already happened: with the release of Java 8, support for the Java Plugin technology as part of the Java Runtime Environment ended, and since April 2019, Oracle Corporation has ceased active support for the technology in all new releases of the virtual machine. A significant consequence of the end of support for the Java Plugin is the end of active support for the applet technology, which is closely related to the Java Plugin. All JDK 8 updates released will include Java Plugin and Applet components, for which the corporation will provide “residual” Sustained Support (Note 2511148.1: “Java SE 8 End of Java Plugin Support”).

The decision to discontinue support was made due to the cancellation of the plug-in programming interface (NPAPI) in their products by the browser manufacturers, which was used to integrate applets into browsers. Currently, only Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 continues to support this interface.

Despite the fact that JVM 8 maintenance as part of extended support is promised by the corporation until the end of 2030 and Oracle still retains residual support for Java Plugin and applets in JVM 8, and while they are included in JVM 8 updates, the documents mentioned earlier are explicitly announced, and was also confirmed by a response to an Oracle technical support request that Java Plugin and applets can disappear from JVM 8 at any time with the release of the next update of the virtual machine… Such a development of events can be very likely in the event that Microsoft stops supporting NPAPI. In this case, the software components of the Java Plugin and applets will be present in the JVM 8 virtual machine only until some update.

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