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iPhone: Article

Steve Jobs Doesn’t Like Java Either

Apple has now “deprecated” Java on its Macs and its just-released Mac OS X 10.6 Update 3
By Maureen O'Gara
Article Rating:
November 1, 2010 09:00 AM EDT
Reads:
 9,090

After outlawing Adobe's Flash on its widgets - now including not putting it on its brand new MacBook Airs - you want it, you load it - Apple has now "deprecated" Java on its Macs and its just-released Mac OS X 10.6 Update 3.

A release note on the Mac OS X Reference Library tersely reads: "As of the release of Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 3, the Java runtime ported by Apple and that ships with Mac OS X is deprecated. Developers should not rely on the Apple-supplied Java runtime being present in future versions of Mac OS X. The Java runtime shipping in Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, and Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, will continue to be supported and maintained through the standard support cycles of those products."

Presumably that means Java won't be in next summer's 10.7 Lion release of the operating system.

But Apple doesn't want Java-ified applications cluttering up its upcoming Mac App Store either. Its rules on what's acceptable, memorialized in its Developer Agreement, say: "Apps that use deprecated or optionally installed technologies (e.g., Java, Rosetta) will be rejected."

MacRumors then waded in saying a Java developer had e-mailed Steve Jobs about this turn of events and that Jobs had responded: "Sun (now Oracle) supplies Java for all other platforms. They have their own release schedules, which are almost always different than ours, so the Java we ship is always a version behind. This may not be the best way to do it." What exactly that's supposed to mean is unclear.

The Oracle-alienated father of Java James Gosling says it's not true that Sun supplies Java for all other platforms. IBM does Java for its platforms, HP for its and so on. And it won't be easy for a third party, even if it could, to jump in and redeem the situation, Gosling claims, because of the "piles of secret" Microsoft-like API in Mac OS, particularly in graphics rendering, not to mention the sheer Apple know-how.

Then there's the weeping and gnashing of teeth out there over Apple alienating Mac-carrying Java developers. Ubuntu is supposed to be the alternative.

Published November 1, 2010 – Reads 9,090
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Maureen O'Gara the most read technology reporter for the past 20 years, is the Cloud Computing and Virtualization News Desk editor of SYS-CON Media. She is the publisher of famous "Billygrams" and the editor-in-chief of "Client/Server News" for more than a decade. One of the most respected technology reporters in the business, Maureen can be reached by email at maureen(at)sys-con.com or paperboy(at)g2news.com, and by phone at 516 759-7025. Twitter: @MaureenOGara

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