Feedback on the Java forums and from Mozilla indicates that the decision to remove the Java Console menu option from the web browser in the new Java Plug-In should be revisited. Making it work again would benefit developers. Reviving the code would involve understanding how this menu option was implemented in both the IE and Firefox browsers, and then hooking it up again so it implements a few behaviors:

 - If there is no JVM attached to the browser, start one with the default arguments
 - Have some browser-side state:
   - When the menu option is first selected, send a message to all attached JVMs to cause them to open the console window if not already opened
   - In this state, when a new JVM instance is started, send a message to it to open its console window
   - When the menu option is selected again, send a message to all attached JVMs to cause them to hide their console windows if not already opened
   - In this state, when a new JVM instance is started, it's not clear yet what to do -- whether to send it a message to hide its console window, or whether to let it decide based on Java Control Panel settings

There is some tricky stuff involved like obeying the Java Control Panel settings by default. We don't want to override them unless the user has explicitly selected the Java Console menu option at least once.

If this were implemented it would also solve customer complaints about the system tray icon, which wouldn't be needed by default any more since there would be a way to open the console after the fact, and in a cross-platform manner.