On Fri, Feb 13, 2004 at 12:20:21PM -0500, Jan Schaumann wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> So apparently it's impossible to have a browser under NetBSD that
> fully supports the most common plugins: java, flash and acroread.
> 
> I've installed mozilla, firebird, firefox, mozilla-linux, netscape7,
> konqeuror and whatnot in various combinations with different plugins
> from packages and by hand, and the bottom line seems to be that nothing
> is working right.
> 
> netscape7 seems to be the most promising one, but it chokes on the java
> plugin.  Binary packages of the linux version of mozilla seem to work ok
> with the flash plugin.  Opera6 can handle the pdf plugin (I think), but
> opera7 can't even spawn the external viewer.

It's possible to get the Linux java plugin working with the netscape7
package.  Someone reported success in doing so on one of the mailing
lists around the same time that native NetBSD Java became more of a
reality.  I assumed that nobody bothered to package up the necessary
magic to make the Linux plugin work because everyone was waiting for
a version of Mozilla to pop up in pkgsrc that used the native JVM...
...and I suspect that the reverse was *also* true.  Everyone waiting
for everyone else, no progress.

Either approach should be possible now.  I don't have time to deal
with it, but perhaps someone does?  I think some dynamic linker
magic was required to get the Linux plugin to go; Mozilla with a
NetBSD java plugin *should* require nothing more than building a
native JVM and doing the appropriate magic in the Mozilla build.

Thor