Hello all I remember a post from a while back reguarding someone's wish to use Microsoft's Virtual Machine with K-Meleon. Once upon a time there was a plugin to use MS VM with netscape. I found the file and did some reading, unfortunately the plugin only works when the <embed> tag is used. I put it on my system and have gotten some functionality out of it. I have also gotten some crashes out of it too. The file is called npmsjava.dll and was intended for Netscape 2.x - 3.x. I had a hard time finding the file, had to download

http://www.cit.uws.edu.au/pub/java/sdk-java.exe

the file is included in the files that extract in a folder called NSPlugin

Info is here

http://www.hi.is/~snorri/097111-97/SDK-docs/getstart/npmsjava.htm

Was curious if anyone knows if there is a newer version of the file. If this could be used in some way to create a plugin that is friendlier with K-Meleon. Before all the MS hating replies come I want to point out that I have tried Sun's Java Runtime Environment, notice that it is slow on my 500 MHZ PC and crashes quite a bit in both IE and K-Meleon. The Java Runtime Environment renders my parent's 200 MHZ(32M machine almost unable to do anything.

Thanks for reading SW

Interesting. You do realise however, that if you disable the Sun Java tray thing from running, that speeds up the Java plugin. When I disabled it on my machine, the Sun Java plugin runs as fast as the MS Java VM.

But anyhow, each to their own. If somebody wants to muck around with something like that plugin you mention, and also noting that the MS VM is no longer being supported by Microsoft anyhow, then go for it. With Service Pack 2 for Windows XP looming, it's only a matter of time before I am rid of the MS VM anyhow. :-)

Actually I wonder if George will stick in one of his patented misspelt whines about this issue very soon, now it's being mentioned again. ;-)

Steven, thanks for that info it's quite interesting and I wonder too if there is an updated version.

MS Java VM is a hell of a lot faster for me also, it's nothing to do with any system tray or background process. It is just damn fast, I recall seeing some Java VM benchmarks albeit not the latest info but MS's implementation left Sun's miles behind on performance.

You're correct, Al, Microsoft is no longer developing the Virtual Machine, however they can address security issues until January 2004. I suspect we will be seeing at least one more release of it before then through the windows update site. I agree with void speed with Sun's VM has nothing to do with the "tray thing". I also disabled it. I have noticed no real issues on PC's that are much faster than mine.

Anyway nice to see that there are others out there whom agree that this would be a good thing.

Well like I said, if anybody's interested, go for it. Only problem is though, without the source for that Netscape plugin, then nobody will be able to have a look at it to see how it works, and even then if they did have the source, the internal mechanisms of Netscape 3.x are totally different to Gecko. It would be a tough thing to re-write.

People should also be aware that the MS Java plug-in is far out-of-date compared to Sun's software. Sun is up to release 1.4.2_01, while the Microsoft VM is compatible only up to 1.2.1 or thereabouts, so any sites or software requiring more recent Java support (and nowadays you are seeing more and more requirements for 1.3 or higher) won't work with the MSVM.

The funny, almost "ironic" thing about all this is, people will sometimes go nuts when say a browser hasn't been updated in six months, but then on the same hand they don't seem to mind the idea of using a Java VM which hasn't been updated in years.

Sounds like a double standard to me. ;-)

Lol, well the plugin is "somewhat" working with the latest build of virtual machine. Not saying that the plugin isn't outdated only working with the embed tag and all. MS virtual machine maybe somewhat dated but not nearly as bad as the plugin. This is of course just my opinion but the first people who are probably going to need an alternative to IE are people running Win95 machine that, most likely will be somewhat out of date too and probably will have some problems with Sun's Java.

LOL!! I just visited Sun's website

http://www.java.com/en/download/windows_automatic.jsp

and gee imagine this:

System Requirements

Windows 98 (2nd edition) or
Windows ME or
Windows NT (service pack 6a) or
Windows 2000 (service pack 3) or
Windows XP Home or
Windows XP Professional (service pack 1)

of course Win95 or Win98 (first edition) users can download an OLD version of the JRE.

http://www.java.com/en/download/help/win95.jsp

but read right there on the page

This version may not allow you to view some Web sites properly, since some applets may require a newer version of the Java plug-in. While 1.3.1_08 will work with Windows 95, it may not work with newer Java applications.

Too funny.

Pardon my ignorance but when you say that it requires the embed tag....what exactly has to be written in the URL bar or elsewhere for a site to use that plugin in KM? I'd like to test it on the java sites that I frequent.

"This version may not allow you to view some Web sites properly, since some applets may require a newer version of the Java plug-in. While 1.3.1_08 will work with Windows 95, it may not work with newer Java applications."'

Windows 95 users are screwed nowadays no matter what they decide to use because it too like the MS VM, is unsupported by Microsoft, and has been for quite some time now. You of course may have noticed that quite a few software companies (not just Sun) have stopped writing programs that work with Windows95 in the first place, usually citing the fact that the OS is unsupported by it's manufacturer, thusly there could be security risks. As Windows98 has now entered it's "end of life" phase, it too will eventually go the way of Windows95.

But anyway, it's good to see that the Netscape plugin you originally mentioned as not working too great is now working for you (albeit with a few bugs here and there). Who knows, with some more wishful thinking, it'll start working 100% with no need for anything to be done with it. ;-)

Replying to a couple of post here I most certainly would NOT describe it as working great. It doesn't lock up my computer totally(like SUN's JRE will). I visited Yahoo Games, tried to play Collapse it just sits there and nothing happens. When a crash occurs it just takes down K-meleon. I visit a site where I chat with people it works fine until I pull up someone's profile and then crashes. The site uses VolanoChat http://www.volcano.com
Yada, yada, yada.

To whomever wants to test it you get the file and copy it to the plugins folder under K-meleon. Most like C:\Program Files\K-meleon\Plugins. You may wish to uninstall Sun's JRE first to ensure it is not handling Java. Just visit the sites you wanna see if it will work at.

What I am saying in regaurds to SUN's latest creation not work with Win95 is that the argument that those who are putting up about using MS's outdated VM when they can use SUN's up-to-date JRE is now sort of invalid, for Win95 users, unless they are saying to go buy the latest "greatest" version of Windows.

More info reguarding what will work with this plugin is at:

http://www.hi.is/~snorri/097111-97/SDK-docs/getstart/npmsjava.htm

Sorry the above message should have read VolanoChat the link is:

http://www.volano.com