You are in a country covered by the embargo. Downloading Java impossible | Hacker News Reader

You are in a country covered by the embargo. Downloading Java impossible

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34 pointsviach17 comments

If Java isn't asking obtusively to update itself every week and every time trying to install that damn Ask Jeeves toolbar, that would actually be nice.

Oracle's Java is high maintenance considering how few applications I have on my desktop / browser that use it.

I wish I could charge Oracle for my time that I spend updating Java all the time. I bet the total human time spent on manually running that updater is obscene when multiplied by the millions of computers it is on.

I use the https://ninite.com installer to install and update Java. No prompts, no adware, and I only have to download the installer once and run it whenever I want to update. I also ran msconfig and disabled Java's auto-updater.

It's gotten worse than that for my VM. Every time the updater asks and I oblige, instead of updating, it just flat out crashes now.

It's hard to believe, but they have broken an updater.

Last time I ran that updater, I noticed a spelling error. They don't seem to care all that much.

Reading the comments, it's some sort specific and narrow IP-block.

Just tried it be remoting into my relatives' computer (in Moscow) and it works just fine.

OpenJDK should still be available from your distro's repositories.

What are the limitations on free and open source software? Are GitHub or Linux repository operators obligated to stop downloads from Russian IPs? Or does Oracle have some special relationship with the USG?

BTW, I can envision a future headline from NYT Upshot like How the embargo on grains, apples, and Java led Russia to become a computer science powerhouse.

The situation is problematic and in the gray area for FOSS projects. Eg Debian had separate "non-us" repository because export limitations, Red Hat[2] and Apache[3] explicitly forbid exporting their software to "illegal" destinations.

[1] https://wiki.debian.org/non-US

[2] http://www.redhat.com/licenses/export/

[3] http://www.apache.org/licenses/exports/

The ReadHat and Apache pages are instructions in how to comply with US law. Since they are at the US, they can not export the software.

ReadHat isn't completely free, but Apache's license has no restricion on exporting the software, as required by FSF guidelines. Somebody not in the US can export it at will. (And the US can forbid Apache from distributing to that somebody...)

>How the embargo on grains, apples, and Java led Russia to become a computer science powerhouse.

Yeah, just like North Korea, Syria and Cuba did.

The only limitations are the ones applied by the US government. You cannot download lots of things from Cuba, Iran, Syria and North Korea. And now Russia, but you can still buy Russian gas.

The irony is that most of this started when Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State, while she was championing free and open internet. But her own department "somehow" had different ideas.

Certain software is classified as 'munitions'

But come on, does that really stop anyone in those countries from downloading software?

At least the linux turnips are swinging.

"The turnips are swinging"? I just googled that, and you're the only result. Good expression! But where did it come from?

Read through the translated comments on the page.

I presume turnips are packages and swinging means working, though I'm not entirely sure.

I used to get these notices in Cuba when I worked there for a few months.

Java: write once, install JVM everywhere.

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