Oracle is changing their java support options in January 2019; is there anything I need to do to continue using libre office after that date? Can I just continue using the version of java I have?
I’ve just installed the latest LO to try out the database. It doesn’t work without JRE. Following a link (from here?) to get it working took me to the oracle.com site, where the download link for JRE required me to sign up for an Oracle account. I baled out, googled, and found you could download it from java.com instead without an account. But the automatic download turned out to be 32-bit (not obviously labelled as such). Uninstalled that and rebooted (sigh), found the 64-bit version, installed that instead.
Not a great experience.
The JRE licence says it’s only for personal use, not for commercial use, so presumably if you want to use LO Base in a company you need a different licence. Went back to the site to find out, and commercial desktop licences are chargeable, about $11 per year.
Are Oracle effectively saying that businesses can’t use LO Base without paying them a subscription?
Well - this is, strictly speaking, an offtopic here: the question actually asks for a kind of legal advise on using a third-party product (Java). But with due notice that IANAL, I’ll try to describe my point of view on this.
Oracle Java SE Support Roadmap doesn’t tell anything about (il)legality to use Java any version at any future time. And IIUC, it does not restrict any rights to do that. It only states about Oracle’s own plans to support its product’s versions, i.e., release updates with required fixes, including security fixes.
Moreover, the text of the roadmap only tells about “commercial use”. So, what they are doing is preparing customers that rely on the product for mission-critical (and otherwise commercial) activities, that starting from date YYYY-MM-DD, there will be no more releases for version X; thus, those who rely on specific version X, will be vulnerable to any security breaches discovered later. Thus, it’s in the business’ interests to start planning for upgrade the infrastructure depending on that Java version X, to not get caught when it’s too late.
As to LibreOffice, we do all required changes to support all current Java versions in current LibreOffice versions. Also, work is being done to stop depending on Java in LibreOffice-own parts. Once it’s finished, Java will only be required to use third-party plugins requiring it, and that’s outside of the scope of LibreOffice project.
I don’t think this is a legal question. I doubt OP was asking about the legality of continuing to use Java. He’s probably wondering if everything will still work OK once Oracle stops updating the free, publicly-available version http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/eol-135779.html. The End of Public Updates for Oracle JDK 8 section is what concerns LO users. There is no legal issue with continuing to use Java, it’s just a concern about what will happen when they stop updating it for the public
Then the question is even less relevant. What will happen when someone stops updating something? That something will be not updated. What is the question here?
Users, including me, are worried certain parts of LO will stop functioning.
/me is interested, why would one need to repeat the links I already provided in the discussed answer…
it feels like @LibertyBelle didn’t actually read it, nor clicked links; why else would the repeated links be required? And then, it would be apparent that I answered the “worries about certain parts” twice: saying that current Java (i.e., the one available in the future - for future versions) are supported; and that those components are being changed to not depend on Java.
Well - possibly you are right, and I feel offended, when someone starts to post links that I used in my answer, as if I didn’t mentioned them. That simply is the sign that a person arguing (which itself is a good thing: arguments often help understand other PoVs) simply didn’t read what I wrote - and then I start wondering why did I try to answer in the first place, when readers don’t take effort to read.
Oracle is not going to “stop updating it” for the public.
This video does a good job of explaining what is going to happen:
Changes to the JDK Release Model
https://www.oracle.com/java/java9-screencasts.html&size=events?bcid=5582439790001
As liberty belle said… " Users, including me, are worried certain parts of LO will stop functioning."
I removed java from my system and my external database connections still work Yeah! … however …
If I deselect ‘use a java runtime environment’ from tools/options/advanced i get the following error dialog box:
" LibreOffice requires a Java runtime environment (JRE) to perform this task. However, use of a JRE has been disabled. Do you want to enable the use of a JRE now? "
How do I suppress the display of this error message?
Hi @Michael514 I know this forum is a little confusing to use, but the Answers section is only for answering the original question. For follow ups and edits, please either edit your original question, post your remarks as under “add a comment” (to either your own original post or someone else’s) or start a new thread.