IcedTea-Web
Gentoo Linux Java lead here! I predicted this would happen given that Chrome has already dropped NPAPI and Firefox probably will. If for some god awful reason you still need the plugin (and you can find a browser that still supports it, maybe SeaMonkey?), the IcedTea-Web project maintains a perfectly good alternative, as well as its own Web Start implementation. I don't think it supports Windows but it has been looked into.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
