Java Update Process - Huge Step Forward

Since the announcement of Java Kernel and improved patching almost two years ago, I was really curious how it will work in real world. I have to say the update works really smoothly, at least at XP and Vista machines. At the XP machine I had Java 6 update 7 installed, which was upgraded to update 10, and few weeks later to 11. The whole update procedure was fast, completed in only few minutes, and painless. The same is true for my Vista machine. I was only asked to shutdown Firefox, Netbeans and Eclipse during the update process - it was the one and only interaction.

Kudos to the engineers - the update procedure is fast and simple (also simple enough for consumers), the incremental patching process seems to work as well; it would be impossible to download the whole JDK / JRE in about two minutes in my case - I had really bad connection.

These are good news - Java6u10/11 is the foundation of javafx. (JavaFX looks interesting as well so far).

Comments:

And what about the automatic deleting of the old directories /files ?

I had the problem that they were still existing after running the update.

Posted by Thomas W. on December 07, 2008 at 02:30 PM CET #

Thomas,

I checked it again - there are no new directories, so there is nothing to delete :-). It seems like the installer only refreshed some binaries in JRE/bin and JRE/lib.

You had this problem with the incremental installer?

thank you for the comment!,

adam

Posted by Adam Bien on December 07, 2008 at 03:04 PM CET #

"It seems like the installer only refreshed some binaries in JRE/bin and JRE/lib."

Hardly. Installations need to be ACID.

Posted by Topcoder on December 07, 2008 at 10:01 PM CET #

The automatic update didn't work on my Vista laptop. I had to install the Update10 manually and then again Update11 manually (had to format).

On my XP desktop, I'm still with the Update10.

I mean, sometimes it remembers to check for updates but it will be after a long time, since the release of the version...

Posted by Souvatzis Vasilios on December 08, 2008 at 09:57 AM CET #

"It seems like the installer only refreshed some binaries in JRE/bin and JRE/lib."

I have a question though.
Will it successfully install the new JRE if the core files (eg rt.jar) of JRE is in use (eg browser applet) during updating ?

Posted by GeekyCoder on December 08, 2008 at 10:13 AM CET #

Topcoder,

Why a patch cannot be ACID?

I just checked the directories, the installer updater only few directories - therefore my assumption....

thanks!,

adam

Posted by Adam Bien on December 08, 2008 at 12:16 PM CET #

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