Java Version Verification Plugin Shenanigans

I think the Java version verification plugin has pretty laughable compatibility issues. I was prompted to update my Java runtime tonight. It meant that I was prompted to test that I have the current version of Java installed. The Java installer is meant to determine this with a plugin on a web page. I would launch a browser to open on that web page by pressing the prompted button in the installer.
What followed was a comedy of errors. For some unknown reason, the Java installer launched Firefox, despite the fact that it is not my default browser. Firefox made sure to tell me this and prompted me to choose to make it my default browser. Instead, I prompted its dialog box to piss off. There was also a notice on the bottom of the Firefox application to prompt me to tidy up its display a bit. This was because it noted that I had not used Firefox in a long time. I did clean up the display, if only to get rid of the banner at the bottom of the browser. Meanwhile, in the middle of the browser, Firefox said that ever since Version 52, Firefox did not support the Java plugin, so it wouldn’t work. This seemed absolutely bizarre to me. So I next went to Help/About, and used it to update Firefox to version 55, which still told me that it did not support the plugin.
There was also now a new banner at the top of the web page window. This one said that my version of Firefox was critically out of date and I had to click on the link to fix it. I did this in order to get rid of the banner. This took me to an all-new web page prompting me to download and install Firefox again. It seemed amateurish to me that Firefox should have to prompt me to update it twice, instead of just getting the update right the first time. But, geek that I am, I obligingly downloaded the next Firefox installer and ran it. To my disgust, it actually aborted when it saw that I already had a version of Firefox open. It should have been able to prompt me to close that version without aborting itself. But, I still went ahead, closed my current version of Firefox and re-ran the installer.
This time, the Java notice stated that I was using the 64-bit version of Firefox. This version was not compatible with the plugin. Nevertheless, the updated version of Firefox looks pretty funky, so it might be worth a look at sometime in the future, but not today. I also tried opening the Java page in Edge. It said that the Edge browser does not support plugins, so it won’t run Java. Even Chrome does not support NPAPI plugins, so it won’t run this Java content. The notice actually suggested that I use Internet Explorer, but I just can’t bring myself to use such an outdated browser. After all this bullshit I’m over whether my Java is the latest version or not.

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