Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Java 6 on Mac!


It has been a long time coming, but finally Apple has released Java 6 for the Mac. The download is 57MB, takes 127MB of space to install and works on OS X 10.5.2 or later. It was a simple install and after adding 1.6 to the Execution Environments for Eclipse, I am off to the races. Everything at first blush seems to be operating as expected. This should really please the Java development community after the backlash against Apple for not keeping a reasonable release cycle after Sun's releases. Whether you agree that it is Apple's responsibility or not to keep Java going on their operating systems, this comes as a welcomed release for Java developers. Thank you Apple! I hope with the OpenJDK initiative that Java 7 will not be a 2 year lag behind on Mac. The largest motivating factor that moved me to start using the Mac was that with the MacBook Pro I could run OS X, Windows, and Linux (choose your flavor) all on the same box. This allows me to more easily test our software on various platforms. This Java issue was one of the biggest disappointments I had when I made the move. I am glad that it is resolved.... for now. Happy Coding!