Saturday, February 7, 2009

Java on Snow Leopard. We'll see...

According to this article:
Why you will upgrade to OS X Snow Leopard
Apple is preparing to release its new version of OS X (The operating system run on Macs).

I'm looking forward to seeing it, however being a developer who mostly works in Java and seeing that Apple has a decidedly poor attitude when it comes to Java, I'm very concerned that I will not be able to use the new OS or buy a new Mac for the two years it will take them to update the Java virtual machine for the operating system.

If we're lucky the old JVM will work just as well and we won't have a problem, however I am not confident that they will give it any priority.
This is unfortunate because all the best Java developers I know are now running Macs.

If they just don't do it and I have to update my machine (as a professional tool, I tend to replace my hardware every 1 to 2 years), I just might end up running Linux or FreeBSD instead.

I'd make a plea for Apple to pay attention to their consumers, but they usually don't and I doubt they would listen to me.

3 comments:

Ismael Juma said...

Hi,

Maybe Java developers who use Java will be luckier this time:

"Snow Leopard uses Java SE 6 for all Java applications and applets" from http://news.worldofapple.com/archives/2008/10/25/latest-snow-leopard-build-10a190-now-available-seed-notes/

Brill Pappin said...

I really hope so, but the real test is going to be when jdk 7 is released... Which will not be too long from now. If apple takes 2 years to get it going, it's going to be a problem for folks like myself.

Ismael Juma said...

Sure. For what is worth, JDK7 is unlikely to be out before the end of this year and even that is optimistic. Early 2010 is probably more realistic.

Having said that, JDK6 update 10 and JDK6 update 14 have some significant improvements, so which JDK6 will be supported is also an interesting question.