JRE Plug-in “Next-Generation” – to migrate or not?

It has been more than half a year since we've migrated from Oracle Jinitiator to Sun Java JRE Plug-in (Java 6 update 5) in our Oracle Applications (EBS) system, and I must say, I'm not satisfied yet. For the first months we had been struggling with a lot of mouse focus bugs which have made our users very angry about this upgrade. Although we've applied some patches related to this bugs, we still have some with no resolution. Upgrading to Developer 6i patchset 19 has solved some bugs but not all of them. As part of an SR we had opened about mouse focus issue, we was advised by Oracle to install the latest Java JRE (Java 6 update 12 this days) as a possible solution for the remaining bugs. Starting with Java 6 update 10, Sun has introduced the new "next-generation Java Plug-in", which makes troubles with Oracle EBS. You can read more about this new architecture at Sun Java site - "What is next-generation Java Plug-in". Right after installing Java 6 update 11, I encountered a problem - when trying to open forms the screen freezes. The browser window hangs inconsistently. I have no idea when it's going to be opened and when it's not. I've tried Java 6 update 12 and it's the same – sometimes it opens and sometimes it doesn’t. No matter what I did - clear java cache on client, clear Apache cache, install JRE in different directory (in case you have installed previous update of version 6), uninstall previous versions of Java Plug-in installed on same pc, I tried with explorer 6 and 7 - the problem wasn't resolved. There is an unpublished opened bug for this problem: Bug 7875493 - "Application freezes intermittently when using JRE 6U10 and later". I've been told by Oracle support that they have some incompatibilities with the new next-generation architecture and that they are working with Sun about it. Meanwhile there are 2 workarounds: (the second doesn't work for me but suggested by Oracle support) 1) Disable the "next generation Java Plug-in" option: Go to Control Panel -> Java -> Select the "Advanced" tab -> expand the "Java Plug-in" -> uncheck the "Enable the next-generation Java Plug-in" option.   This workaround always works (at least for me...). 2) Set the swap file to system managed + Tune the heap size for java: - Go to Control Panel -> System -> Select the "Advanced" tab -> click on Settings (in Performance frame) -> Select the "Advanced" tab -> Click on Change -> Select the "System managed size" option. - Go to Control Panel -> Java -> Select the "Java" tab -> Click "View..." (in Java Applet Runtime Settings frame) -> update the "Java Runtime Parameters" field with: "-Xmx128m -Xms64m". This workaround doesn't work for me. For now, I've decided to stay with the "old" Java Plug-in 6 update 5 and do not upgrade our users to the new next-generation Java Plug-in. I Hope the following updates of Java Plug-in will be better or Oracle will publish a patch to solve this problem. I’ll keep update as soon as I have more info’. Aviad