Instead of bashing other projects you should point to the solution in Ubuntu:
Choose Add/remove in the Applications menu, select show all applications and search for java. Just a few clicks away. Gnome-app-install will be integrated into firefox like this has already be done for codecs in Totem.
The dist-upgrader still allows to upgrade a system that has automatix installed.
Instead of bashing other projects you should point to the solution in Ubuntu:
Choose Add/remove in the Applications menu, select show all applications and search for java. Just a few clicks away. Gnome-app-install will be integrated into firefox like this has already be done for codecs in Totem.
The dist-upgrader still allows to upgrade a system that has automatix installed.