Remember the Ask search engine? Oracle sure does—and by extension, so do Java users. Oracle has taken the practice of bundling useless add-ons and toolbars with legitimate software to new heights while collecting a commission each time it tricks a user into installing an Ask toolbar.
That's what Windows expert and legendary skeptic Ed Bott of ZDNet reports after examining Java's installation and update practices. Bott has done extensive reporting on "foistware," previously crowning Adobe and Skype as the worst offenders. But over the past year, Adobe and Skype have reformed themselves a little bit, while Oracle's Java now deserves the crown for "king of foistware," he wrote today.
"The evidence against Oracle is overwhelming," Bott wrote, continuing: