Somewhere in this now-sprawling blog is an article about using JInitiator on Vista. Sadly, I can’t find it. I’ve been seeing a few troubling things popping up on the web about various JInitiator hacks, so it’s time to reprise that content.
It’s not possible to run Oracle JInitiator 1.3 on Microsoft Vista. Here’s why:
Oracle JInitiator 1.3 is based on Sun’s JDK 1.3
Sun’s JDK 1.3 is incompatible with Vista.
Sun has desupported JDK 1.3, so they have no plans to make it Vista compatible
Therefore, JInitiator is fundamentally incompatible with Vista due to its JDK 1.3 dependencies
On Hacking Up JInitiator
Various creative individuals have discovered that it’s possible to replace a certain DLL in Oracle JInitiator 1.3 with a JVM from, say, JDK 1.6. I can’t personally testify that these hacks work. I can say that this kind of surgery makes
me intensely uncomfortable.
While it’s nice to see creative initiative, I have to remind you that Oracle would regard this as a customization. We don’t recommend customizing Oracle JInitiator for production environments.
What Happens When Something Goes Wrong?
If you do choose to customize Oracle JInitiator 1.3, you should consider the support implications for your users. Oracle Support and Forms Development can provide patches only for issues that can be reproduced with an unmodified version of Oracle
JInitiator.
If you encounter any issues specific to your customized version of JInitiator, Oracle’s default recommendation will be to roll back to an unmodified version.
What Does Oracle Recommend for Vista?
We recommend using the native Sun Java plug-in (Java Runtime Engine) for Vista client desktops connecting to either Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i or 12. The native JRE client is the only certified and supported Java client for E-Business Suite
desktops end-users running on Microsoft Windows.
If you haven’t already started migrating your end-users to the native Sun JRE plug-in, I’d strongly recommend that you begin this process immediately.
Why Choose the Native Sun JRE over JInitiator 1.3?
Two reasons:
JInitiator 1.3 doesn’t run on Vista (and hacks aren’t supported)
JInitiator will be desupported on July 31, 2009
The elimination of Oracle JInitiator simplifies your desktop administration environment. Apps DBAs who have migrated their users to the native Sun JRE no longer have to struggle with compatibility and coexistence problems between JInitiator and other Java
runtime clients on the same desktop.
Which JRE Versions Are Certified With Which Browsers?
Apps 11i is certified with the native Sun Java (JRE) plug-in. You can use any JRE release from 1.5.0_13 and higher, or 1.6.0_03 and higher. Your end-users can upgrade their JRE clients whenever Sun releases a new JRE release on either codeline — without
waiting for Oracle to certify these new JRE plug-ins with EBS 11i.
Apps 12 is certified with the native Sun Java (JRE) plug-in. You can use any JRE relese from 1.6.0_03 and higher. Your end-users can upgrade their JRE clients whenever Sun releases a new JRE release on either codeline — without waiting for
Oracle to certify these new JRE plug-ins with EBS 12.
The upgrade process is documented here:
- Upgrading Sun J2SE (Native Plug-in) with Oracle Applications 12.0 for Windows Clients (Metalink Note 393931.1)
- Upgrading Sun J2SE (Native Plug-in) with Oracle Applications 11i for Windows Clients (Metalink Note 290807.1)
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