Java 6 Available on OSX Thanks to Port of OpenJDK

LarsWestergren writes "Many Mac users have been upset that Apple has not made Java 6 available on the platform. Landon Fuller posts that there is a developer preview release available of Java JDK6 on Mac OSX, Tiger and Leopard. It is based on the BSD port of Sun's Java 6 and is made available under the Java Research License. Charles Nutter posts about impressive JRuby performance gains using Java 6 on his Mac."

Comments

Re:Why Apple?

[kwolf22]

Apple provides their own non-GPL'd Java implementation. Presumably, the core components of this implementation have been licensed from Sun under a non-GPL license that allows Apple to create a platform specific derivative work. I know that Apple distributes J2SE 5.0 with an Apple License that states, "...you may not copy, decompile, reverse engineer, disassemble, modify, or create derivative works of the Apple Software or any part thereof." This protects the proprietary parts of Apple's implementation of Java that link to the rest of their proprietary code. BTW, this situation also means that the GPL Classpath Exception doesn't apply to Apple's Java Implementation.

My feeling is that the Apple/Java vacuum has to do with the fact that Java is now GPL'd. I seem to remember that one of the reasons that Apple chose BSD over Linux for OS X was due to the way GPL'd software is licensed. Think about it... Apple has done A LOT of work to integrate Java into just about every aspect of OS X. Probably, under the GPL, they'd have to cough up a lot of their proprietary integration source code. I think that this is also why there is no official QuickTime Player for Linux. If Apple were to come out and announce that they won't support Java on OS X because of the GPL, it would probably cause much worse press than the present situation (which also sucks, btw).

Since OS X, Apple has been a big supporter of Open Source software - but NOT Free (GPL'd) software. My feeling is that before we see OpenJDK on OS X (or on the iPhone), Apple will have to figure out how their proprietary technologies such as Aqua, QuickTime, etc. will be able to legally integrate with GPL'd Java. Either that, or Apple will cease in-house Java development entirely and give it back to the community - relegating Java it to third party add-on status.

Personally, my fear is that since Apple's Java 6 implementation seemed ready to go - especially for Leopard, Apple pulled their Java 6 implementation because they are unwilling to comply with the terms of the GPL. Keep in mind that Java 5 (Apple's current implementation) is not to be GPL'd. If this is the case, there could be serious implications about the future of Java integration with all of Apple's technologies

Re:Maybe it's me

[FatherOfONe]

Yeah, and lets add a few more to the list.
No PHP crap. Slow, and it is only for script kiddies.
No Ruby crap. Way too new and it is a fad.
No games... they just cause systems to crash. Who needs cool games.
No C or C++, only that crappy C variant that Apple makes.
Heck, now that I think about it, no programming languages at all. Make it just like they wanted to with the iPhone.

Obviously I am kidding... I own a Mac and run most (not all) of the stuff mentioned above. I game on a console. I do wish that Apple would release their GUI Java stuff under GPL, so people like this guy could get Java 6 with SWING out there ASAP. I would love to do my Java development on my Mac without using Parallels and XP.

Some have suggested that Sun should be the one making a VM for Apple, and I would agree BUT Apple should have come to Sun two years ago and said that they were out of the JVM business and worked with Sun to insure a modern VM was on their platform. It is in both parties interest to see a good JVM on the Macintosh.... Hopefully one that doesn't require a freaking OS upgrade to get the latest version of Java.

Please Apple, finish Java 6 for the Macintosh and then hand the code over to Sun to make Java 7. Sun take that code and open source it as well.