old jre 1.3 on windows 8 [closed]

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Closed 9 years ago.

We have a very old client-server application that uses JRE 1.3, it's network communication is based on sockets and has a desktop client, my boss is asking me to investigate the chance to install it on windows 8. I don´t have a windows 8 at hand, so has someone tried to do such thing? The desktop app is really huge, so upgrading it, is not an option.

Answer 1

Java strives to keep very strict backwards compatibility, so I would try to install the latest Oracle Java JRE version on the Windows 8 machine and execute the application on that.

Chances are it will work out of the box.

Answer 2

As Andrea says in another answer, backwards compatibility is very important in Java. However things do get deprecated and potentially eventually removed.

You may want to review the following, lists of things deprecated in the various java versions in case something in there is core to how your application works.

• Java 7: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/deprecated-list.html
• Java 6: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/deprecated-list.html
• Java 5: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/1.5.0/docs/api/deprecated-list.html
• Java 4: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/1.4.2/docs/api/deprecated-list.html