> Wouldn't it be better to allow developers to override methods at their own > risk.
There's no such thing. When some big customer overrides methods, we have no choice but to support their app for the foreseeable future. Which is why deprecated stuff never could be removed from the JDK as well. And a host of bugs won't be fixed. When the CEO of a customer with a major hardware contract comes knocking -- well, at that time you really wish you had designed the API differently. > Yet, those that are willing to take the risks, can do something to keep their > business alive. I would strongly recommend leaving the shared JRE install world behind. Richard