As part of Oracle’s ongoing effort to kill java, they’re now deprecating java web start.
I’ve got a working prototype “simple replacement” for java web start, a single class
that downloads and creates a cache for a list of jars supplied from a web site. This
trivial class can be packaged as an executable jar, which can be downloaded and
run on any platform that supports java.
There are still some bits of finesse to be added to make it as user friendly as possible.
Using Launch4J to deliver the executable jar is pretty satisfactory for windows, but
running the raw jar file on mac and linux is less satisfactory.
Anyway, my aim is to create a sourceforge or git project for it, but if anyone wants to try
it out, and/or help refine the delivery, PM me.