You haven't provided much information. What kind of "client" are
you talking about, and what do you mean by "update?" Or, turn the
question around: What is it about your situation that makes Web Start
inappropriate? What do you want to do that Web Start doesn't (or
what does Web Start do that you'd rather it didn't)?
I want to do what almost every consumer software product does these
days, e.g. Firefox, Adobe Reader, etc: When it starts, check whether
updates are available, if they are, annoy the user with an "Update Me
Now!" dialog, and download and install the update.
Regarding WebStart, there are four issues I see:
- Our application comes bundled with a JRE which also has to be updated.
I cannot bundle a download version with a JRE with WebStart, because
WebStart requires the JRE to be installed.
- Part of the application requires a license key to authenticate the
download.
- The software must also be able to display a list of "Available
Extensions" among which the user can choose.
It might be that all of the above can be addressed by WebStart, but I'm
afraid the most important reason is this one:
- People are not used to WebStart. They easily become irritated by
things they have never seen. They want to download an EXE file and run
it. (This is not my opinion, it's just whart I observe, and it *is* a
reason, although we may not like it.)