Oracle Releases Java Development Kits for OS X as Work on Java SE 7 for Mac Continues

MacRumors · Apr 26, 2012

Back in late 2010, Apple announced that it would cease supporting Java for OS X, with Steve Jobs noting that Apple was always a version behind that being distributed by Sun/Oracle, which handled Java for all other platforms.

Confusion about whether Oracle would step into the Java void created by Apple's removal of support was addressed several weeks later when Apple and Oracle announced plans to expand Oracle's OpenJDK project to include OS X as a means to deliver Java SE 7 to Mac users.

Oracle today announced that is taking the next step toward OS X compatibility with the release of Java SE 7 Update 4 and JavaFX 2.1. For Java developers, the update marks the first release of the Java Development Kit (JDK) and JavaFX Software Development Kit for OS X. The OpenJDK community is continuing its work on a consumer version of Java SE 7 for OS X, and Oracle says that a public release for consumers will be coming "later in 2012".

This release marks Oracle's first delivery of both the Java Development Kit (JDK) and JavaFX Software Development Kit (SDK) for Mac OS X.

- Java developers can now download Oracle's JDK, which includes the JavaFX SDK, for Mac OS X from the Oracle Technology Network (OTN).

- Oracle plans to release a consumer version of Java SE 7, including the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) for Mac OS X later in 2012.

While the transition to Oracle/OpenJDK for Java support on OS X continues, Steve Jobs' comments about Apple's Java packages always being a version behind and how that arrangement "may not be the best way to do it" proved prescient in recent weeks with the appearance of the Flashback malware. The latest incarnations of Flashback managed to infect over 600,000 Macs by taking advantage of a vulnerability in Java that had been patched by Oracle in February but which had not yet been patched on OS X.

In response, Apple released several updates to Java for OS X, including one that disables the automatic execution of Java applets. As an additional layer of security, once a user manually turns on automatic execution, the system will once again disable it after a period of time if no applets have been executed.

Article Link: Oracle Releases Java Development Kits for OS X as Work on Java SE 7 for Mac Continues

TehFalcon · Apr 26, 2012

I Wonder if this will work on PPC Leopard?

Edit: the coming Runtime of course.

DisMyMac · Apr 26, 2012

Still another security feature is not updating hardware to run stuff efficiently...

Mr. Wonderful · Apr 26, 2012

It's going to be annoying not getting this from Software Update. Maybe they can release it from the App Store though?

afin · Apr 26, 2012

Java is still java no matter where our updates come from...

Xenu007 · Apr 26, 2012

Banish Java now!

Java is the worst thing about OS X. It's like having a little bit of Microsoft under the hood to hog memory and weaken security. Banish it forever! And while you're at it, banish Javascript from the web!

appsforkids · Apr 26, 2012

No offense, but I would like to remove JAVA from my mac, and if it's not too much trouble could we remove it from my DVR that takes 30 minutes to boot as well?

mytdave · Apr 26, 2012

good

I am most pleased with this development. This is exactly where this needs to go. I applaud Oracle for their work and taking on the job of Java releases for OS X - just like all the other platforms. It's home and the responsibility now rests in the correct place, and this will make Java development for those using Mac systems actually plausible - more than just a sideshow experimental exercise.

RMo · Apr 26, 2012

Xenu007 said:
Java is the worst thing about OS X. It's like having a little bit of Microsoft under the hood to hog memory and weaken security. Banish it forever! And while you're at it, banish Javascript from the web!

You do realize that Java and JavaScript are completely different, correct? While JS is hardly a pleasant language to code in (in my opinion), few modern websites would work without it (e.g., Gmail, which was one of the pioneer apps in pushing its capabilities).

vpndev · Apr 26, 2012

2 late

I had enough already. I de-installed Java. Just not worth the hassle.

FrancoisC · Apr 26, 2012

Xenu007 said:
Java is the worst thing about OS X. It's like having a little bit of Microsoft under the hood to hog memory and weaken security. Banish it forever! And while you're at it, banish Javascript from the web!

You do know that javascript is not Java right?

Also, sure, lets banish Java, a cross platform runtime that is used practically everywhere

Anyway, on topic; good to know

throAU · Apr 26, 2012

Xenu007 said:
Java is the worst thing about OS X. It's like having a little bit of Microsoft under the hood to hog memory and weaken security. Banish it forever! And while you're at it, banish Javascript from the web!

Like ANYTHING - If you don't need Java, don't install it - it hasn't been a default part of OS X since at least Lion, maybe SL, i forget...

However, some people do need it (and not just for minecraft - many network admin tools, etc use it).

Personally I don't know why this didn't happen sooner. The sooner it is supported by Oracle, the sooner apple don't get the blame for security holes on it.

Watabou · Apr 26, 2012

Xenu007 said:
Java is the worst thing about OS X. It's like having a little bit of Microsoft under the hood to hog memory and weaken security. Banish it forever! And while you're at it, banish Javascript from the web!

You certainly have no understanding what Java or Javascript is.

Anyways. I'm looking forward to Java 7. I don't particularly like Java since it's too verbose imo but Java 7 is supposed to make some things less verbose especially when you catch exceptions. Now I don't need four separate lines to catch four exceptions.

-LikesMac- · Apr 26, 2012

Well...

So I learned some Java over last summer (intro course). Literally the day after the classes ended, Java 7 was released—for Windows; I didn't have a Mac back then, though. However, it's been many months and now the JDK for OS X is out? "What took them so long" is all I can say...

In general, Mac stuff come out later so there's not much of a surprise here.

dempson · Apr 26, 2012

WAM2 said:
I Wonder if this will work on PPC Leopard?

Edit: the coming Runtime of course.

No. JDK/JRE 7 Update 4 Requires 10.7.2 or later (Intel only).

See the release notes.

It would be reasonable to assume that future updates will require Lion or later, so Snow Leopard isn't going to get Java SE 7.

Mac OS X on PPC (or Intel for Leopard and earlier) is not going to get any further Java updates, since it would need Apple to update their integrated port of Java, and they won't do that for a system version they are no longer supporting.

As per their earlier announcement, Apple will continue to support Java SE 6 on Snow Leopard and Lion, at least until they stop doing security updates for those OS versions.

Once Apple stops updating Java for Snow Leopard it will have to be disabled manually in web browsers for safety, as is already the case for Leopard and earlier.

mdriftmeyer · Apr 26, 2012

RMo said:
You do realize that Java and JavaScript are completely different, correct? While JS is hardly a pleasant language to code in (in my opinion), few modern websites would work without it (e.g., Gmail, which was one of the pioneer apps in pushing its capabilities).

There are plenty of client-side scripting language options to replace Javascript. If you ask me if I know the difference between these two languages then you truly are daft.

The original team on Java and it's Foundation Classes came from NeXT. I'll end the conversation now. The Oak Programming Language is a compromise between ObjC and C++ and a real hog, though nothing of a hog compared to Flash.

TehFalcon · Apr 26, 2012

dempson said:
No. JDK/JRE 7 Update 4 Requires 10.7.2 or later (Intel only).

See the release notes.

It would be reasonable to assume that future updates will require Lion or later, so Snow Leopard isn't going to get Java SE 7.

Mac OS X on PPC (or Intel for Leopard and earlier) is not going to get any further Java updates, since it would need Apple to update their integrated port of Java, and they won't do that for a system version they are no longer supporting.

As per their earlier announcement, Apple will continue to support Java SE 6 on Snow Leopard and Lion, at least until they stop doing security updates for those OS versions.

Once Apple stops updating Java for Snow Leopard it will have to be disabled manually in web browsers for safety, as is already the case for Leopard and earlier.

Thats unfortunate. My Powermac G5 would have made a great Minecraft Machine.

nutmac · Apr 26, 2012

Xenu007 said:
Java is the worst thing about OS X. It's like having a little bit of Microsoft under the hood to hog memory and weaken security. Banish it forever!

I agree that desktop Java and web Java applets need to go (and they have for the most part), but server-side Java is very important to the success of OS X. Even at Apple, Java powers online Apple Store, iCloud, and more. And much of Google is written in Java.

throAU · Apr 26, 2012

I just hope they continue to support java 1.6 (or "6"). About half of the applications I actually need Java for flake out or have various problems in v7.

macsrcool1234 · Apr 27, 2012

Xenu007 said:
Java is the worst thing about OS X. It's like having a little bit of Microsoft under the hood to hog memory and weaken security. Banish it forever! And while you're at it, banish Javascript from the web!

I almost died with laughter at this statement. People STILL confuse Java with javascript?

Banish javascript from the web? Turn off javascript from your browser. Enjoy gimped web surfing.

mdriftmeyer said:
There are plenty of client-side scripting language options to replace Javascript. If you ask me if I know the difference between these two languages then you truly are daft.

The original team on Java and it's Foundation Classes came from NeXT. I'll end the conversation now. The Oak Programming Language is a compromise between ObjC and C++ and a real hog, though nothing of a hog compared to Flash.

You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

bushido · Apr 27, 2012

speaking of java, anyone up for taking my prog2 exam this semester?

i dont want to fail it a 3rd time. i admire devs, its beyond me how people understand these things, so many different code lines and stuff to remember that makes no sense whatsoever to me. ill never understand how i passed prog 1

rmwebs · Apr 27, 2012

Xenu007 said:
Java is the worst thing about OS X. It's like having a little bit of Microsoft under the hood to hog memory and weaken security. Banish it forever! And while you're at it, banish Javascript from the web!

Oh dear...

Java is a programming language

JavaScript is a scripting language

Neither are remotely similar, they just both have 'java' in their name.

JavaScript is what keeps the internet ticking over. Virtually every single site on the web makes use of Javacript. It's fast, easy to use, and does some fantastic stuff. One such example of what a bit of CSS and Javascript together can do, is this: http://www.edankwan.com/lab/3dit

Westyfield2 · Apr 27, 2012

Hurrah!

Heck even for a University assignment this semester I ran into issues where I'd developed everything on my PC running the latest Java version, and then it just wouldn't run on my Macs as I'd used same Java 7 features (multi-catch exception handling, try-with-resource statements, etc). And of-course, were University's lab PCs even running Java 7? No they ****ing weren't

.

Ended up hacking my code to pieces to make it work properly on Java 6.

Rages me when people go on about how Java is platform independent.

Solution? Just do everything in C# .NET through Visual Studio in a VM.

karlth · Apr 27, 2012

Java on desktops is a disaster, always has been. Those who have worked with it on servers mostly agree though that it is quite useful there.

Winni · Apr 27, 2012

WAM2 said:
Thats unfortunate. My Powermac G5 would have made a great Minecraft Machine.

It can still be one: Just install Linux on it and use IBM's Java runtime for PowerPC CPUs or one of the other Java VMs for PowerPC Linux.

Life has less restrictions once you've left Apple land.

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vpndev said:
I had enough already. I de-installed Java. Just not worth the hassle.

That only means one thing: You didn't need Java in the first place.

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karlth said:
Java on desktops is a disaster,

Maybe. It obviously works very well on Android. Or on Lego Mindstorms, for that matter. Or in BluRay players. Or TVs. The list is actually very long, once you start thinking about it. According to SUN/Oracle, more than 3 billion(!) devices out there have Java on them. It's the most successful software platform on the world. I guess there must be a reason for that.

Oracle Releases Java Development Kits for OS X as Work on Java SE 7 for Mac Continues

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