Icedtea / OpenJDK running a Java Web Start (.jnlp) app

[Fernando Cassia]

This is unbelievable. I'm outraged. I've been going in circles trying
to find what executable I need to point my browser to since I click on
a Java Web Start app launching link (on a properly configured Firefox
with OpenJDK java and Icedtea plug-in working, and the bwoser offers
me to open the .jnlp file with "gedit". ;-P

Google searches do not bring any information.

On Windows java there's a javaws.exe as part of the JRE and that takes
care of that (and needless to say Java JRE install automagically
associates JNLP links to javaws.exe at the browser level (helper app).
So the end user just "installs java" and is done with it.

Now, I've argued before that OpenJDK should include IcedTea as part of
the same package, because, heck, it's Java. I remember I got pummeled
for suggesting so "Java is java, and the plug-in is the plug-in" was
the general concensus. Since I don't want to argue, at this point I'd
settle for the package name to have an alias like "openjdk-plugin"
becase, gee, not everyone in the world knows that the open source java
has a plugin with a totally unrelated name to the open source java
package name (OpenJDK).

The IcedTea web page is a joke. Done by developers, for developers,
but with ZERO information for the end user who might just happen to be
in need to find how to launch a JWS app with his browser.

So here I am, looking at a browser that tells me if I want to open a
.jnlp link with a text editor, instead of looking at the Java Web
Start app I want to launch. The Icedtea page provides no information
of use, and google searches have me going in circles.

Read in Borat's tone: "GREAT SUCCESS!!"
FC

-- 
During times of Universal Deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act
- George Orwell