Dear Oracle

Please stop bundling the Ask Toolbar with JRE updates

Dear Oracle

I apologise in advance for this little rant, but please stop bundling the Ask Toolbar with JRE updates.

I recognise that you consider yourselves to be the custodians of Java, and that there are few alternatives to your JRE on Windows. However, there is one thing that you do which particularly damages your brand in my eyes.

It's highlighted in yellow in the following picture, and it causes extra work for almost every technically minded person, because every time there's a Java update, all of our non-technical friends and acquaintances religiously update their systems. And almost without fail, they blindly click on Next without noticing that invidious little checkbox.

A couple of days later, there's a phone call. "Hello. Sorry to bother you, but something has gone wrong with the internet again. I think it's that Java thing again. Can you come and take a look please?"

I could be wrong, but surely this isn't good for your brand? You are simultaneously annoying techies, who would like to relax at the end of a long day rather than acting as Java technical support, and non-technical people who would rather just use their computer without having to feel like they are bothering their friends and family.

Now, you might say that it's their choice whether they install it or not. True, but you'd be assuming that people are sole custodians of their computers, or that there's only one per household. Not true. If a friend's computer has the problem, then the chances are that their kids' computers will soon have the same problem if they don't already. And I might be able to convince one or two to pay attention when they are installing software, but even when I get through, they then have to remember.

These are hard working people who have come home after a long day and have finally sat down to relax. And now you're putting the burden on them to remember to click a checkbox when all they are trying to do is see the latest football scores, or watch a movie on their laptop, because they're too tired to do anything else.

Trust me, it is easier to tell them to remove Java. After all, what do they need it for in a home PC environment? In my case, I'm a developer and Eclipse won't run without it, but are there any compelling use cases for desktop Java in the home? Are they missing much?