Oracle’s Sun Java JDK packages are to be removed from the Ubuntu partner repositories and disabled on users systems.

Oracle, in retiring the ‘Operating System Distributor License for Java’, means Canonical no longer have permission to distribute the package.

The change will affect Ubuntu 10.04 LTs, Ubuntu 10.10 and 11.04 users only.

Users who have the ‘sun-java-6’ package installed on their system will see it removed via a future software update – the exact date of which is ‘TBD’.

Anyone requiring the software will need to switch to open-source alternatives (many of which are readily available in the Ubuntu Software Centre) or by manually installing the Java packages available through the Oracle web site.

OpenJDK – Succeeding Java

OpenJDK – which until now has been the open-source alternatives to Java – will now become the official implementation of Java. Oracle themselves will be using OpenJDK as the basis for their own future releases.

Security Risk Update

The expiration of license coincides with a number of security issues present in the version of Java available through the Ubuntu partner repositories.

“Due to the severity of the security risk, Canonical is immediately releasing a security update for the Sun JDK browser plugin which will disable the plugin on all machines.” Ubuntu’s Marc Deslauriers wrote in a mail to the Ubuntu Security Mailing list.

“This will mitigate users’ risk from malicious websites exploiting the vulnerable version of the Sun JDK.”

Thanks to Erik Nasaroff