We have a very old client-server application that uses JRE 1.3, it's network communication is based on sockets and has a desktop client, my boss is asking me to investigate the chance to install it on windows 8. I don´t have a windows 8 at hand, so has someone tried to do such thing? The desktop app is really huge, so upgrading it, is not an option.
Java strives to keep very strict backwards compatibility, so I would try to install the latest Oracle Java JRE version on the Windows 8 machine and execute the application on that.
Chances are it will work out of the box.