Ubuntu is removing Oracle’s version of Java from their repositories in favour of OpenJDK because of a licensing change by Oracle. They are also disabling the browser plugin on user’s machines with an update because of unpatched security issues.

Oracle, in retiring the ‘Operating System Distributor License for Java’, means Canonical no longer have permission to distribute the package. The change will affect Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, Ubuntu 10.10 and 11.04 users only. OpenJDK – which until now has been the open-source alternatives to Java – will now become the official implementation of Java. Oracle themselves will be using OpenJDK as the basis for their own future releases.

The expiration of license coincides with a number of security issues present in the version of Java available through the Ubuntu partner repositories. “Due to the severity of the security risk, Canonical is immediately releasing a security update for the Sun JDK browser plugin which will disable the plugin on all machines.” Ubuntu’s Marc Deslauriers wrote in a mail to the Ubuntu Security Mailing list.

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Ubuntu is removing Oracle's version of Java from their repositories in favour of OpenJDK because of a licensing change by Oracle. They are also disabling the browser plugin on user's machines with an update because of unpatched security issues. Oracle, in retiring the ‘Operating System Distributor License for Java’, means Canonical no longer have permission to distribute ...