Java 6 WILL NOT be Included in Mac OS X Leopard
October 25th, 2007
By all appearances, the initial release of Mac OS X Leopard will not include Java 6. Java 5 will still be there and include all of the 64-bit goodness that we’ve been reading about. Considering that Java 6 is not listed as one of the 300+ new features it’s a good indicator that it won’t be there. I’ve also received a few good comments which strongly indicate that Java 5 is the JVM that ships with Leopard. There maybe a separate Java 6 download later in life, but Apple being who they are don’t have much to offer on the subject. * sigh *. Looks like I’ll be saving my $129 for a while along with the rest of the folks who do Java development on a Mac.
GA already landed here, Java 1.6 isn’t in. I smell a *bleep*storm coming.
I’ve also no idea what 64-bit goodness is supposed be, unless Leopard can load amd64 processes in an x86 kernel. (Provided there’s some ritual incantation one has to do to install a 64bit OS X I don’t know about.)
I’m actually referring to this nugget from the WWDC 2007 pages:
http://developer.apple.com/wwdc/sessions/index.html#138
The ability to run 64-bit applications is a highly touted feature of 10.5:
http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/300.html#unix
Java is apparently one of those 64-bit applications.
Ryan-
On the other hand, there are some pretty serious consolation prizes: fake backdrops in video iChat; and smoother scrolling in Preview.