As we mentioned earlier, the state of support for Java in web browsers has always been a mess. The most reliable way to run Java in a web browser has always been the Java Plug-in. The Plug-in is a free, user-installed component (implemented differently for each browser) that supports Java itself. Using the Plug-in makes an end-run around the poor support built into the browser by using a separate software package that can be installed and updated independently of the browser releases.
Recently, some platforms—notably Mac OS X—have dropped the built-in support for Java in the browser entirely and rely on users to install the Java Plug-in if they wish to run applets. This is not ideal, but does simplify things by eliminating some of the ambiguity. If you have installed Java 7 on OS X or Windows, then you should already have the Java Plug-in needed to run the applets discussed in this chapter. In some cases, the first time you attempt to view a page containing an applet, you may be prompted to enable Java in the browser. You may also want to consult the Java “control panel” in Windows or “preference pane” in Mac OS X for additional preferences related to Java after installing Java 7.
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