The Love Shack

Sad news. Blackdown Java Linux is no more. The project has been retired. For those who never knew Blackdown in its prime, it was the only way to get proper Java support in Linux for years. For years Sun was under the impression that Linux == Red Hat. So for all of us non-RH users, we could either not use Java at all, or struggle through setting it all up by hand. Then Blackdown came along and offered excellent Debian packages and all was well.

Then, a few years ago, we had the big push to 64-bit machines. Using Linux, it didn’t take very long to get a full 64-bit native system up and running, but many of us were relegated to using a 32-bit browser in a chroot due to a lack of plugins. Since Sun can’t be bothered with giving us a 64-bit plugin, someone else had to do it. Enter Blackdown. To the best of my knowledge, this is (or was, at least) still the only 64-bit Java browser plugin available anywhere. It’s only Java 1.4 unfortunately, but most Java plugins aren’t all that new anyway. And now, this great project is no more.

Sorry to see you go Blackdown, but you all made using Java under Linux possible (and even easy !) for so many for so long.

Note: If you’d like to thank the Blackdown folks directly for their contribution to the Java world, they do have a Contact page still up on the site with contact info for most of the contributors.