[andyhmltn]

How is it extreme? The only time I've needed java is for minecraft. Luckily I'm not rocking windows so the chance of being hit by a 0-day is a bit lower (correct me if I'm wrong.)

But stopping the chance of having everything in your digital (and in the case of money, personal) life stolen because you clicked on a link FAR outweighs the benefit of playing minecraft imo.

[dragontamer]

http://krebsonsecurity.com/2012/04/urgent-fix-for-zero-day-m...

Macs get it too.

Linux theoretically can get these problems, but because every Linux machine is different, the malware would have to be written to be cross-distribution. (ie: One may work in Debian, but not in Fedora / Red Hat... depending on how things work out).

Nonetheless, some people write viruses for Debian specifically: http://www.securityspace.com/smysecure/catid.html?id=1.3.6.1...

It won't work on Red Hat, but the x86-specific 64-bit Debian was an attractive enough target for whoever wrote that one... I'm sure I can find a Red Hat Virus, Fedora Virus, Ubuntu virus, etc. etc. But they become increasingly rarer and rarer the fewer people use that specific distribution / OS.

[Tomdarkness]

I think you need to go back and read what you replied to.

Having Java installed but with Java disabled in your browser, like I suggested, means Java applets won't run in your browser at all. You'd need to download and execute the .jar or wrapper (which would be a executable anyway) which is no different from downloading any normal executable and running it.

[andyhmltn]

Well yes I agree on that actually. Probably should've thought that through.

[namdnay]

Eclipse, Netbeans, IDEA, SoapUI, HermesJMS, Notes, SQLDeveloper, DB2 viewer. Chances are, if you're developing software you're going to use Java at some point

[andyhmltn]

Hmm yes I guess. Although saying that, I've never used any of those tools (Well Eclipse and Netbeans but not for anymore than a few days.)

[Intermernet]

"Luckily I'm not rocking windows so the chance of being hit by a 0-day is a bit lower (correct me if I'm wrong.)"

As far as I know, if you run it, and it's written intelligently enough, you're in trouble no matter what OS you're on.

It doesn't matter if you're on Windows, OSX, Linux or System i V7, if you approve the app to run, it'll run.

Java is a bit dangerous that way, but it's also a bit awesome that way :-)

[andyhmltn]

Oh of course. But the majority of virus' I've seen target windows specifically. So it is a bit lower when you're using something like Linux. But I just don't enable it :-)