macOS Java 7 and a Mac JVM from Oracle

[slrandall]

Does anyone know if Oracle will be able to have a replacement JVM for the one Apple is dropping support for by OS X Lion? I heard that Apple was going to sell them the code they'd built over the past few years, but wasn't sure if that was true or not.

Especially with the upcoming release of Java 7, I keep doubting a magical new JVM from Oracle to replace Apple's soon-to-be deprecated one. But does anyone have any info on this?

 

[jiminaus]

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/11/12openjdk.html

In particular (emphasis added):

Apple also confirmed that Java SE 6 will continue to be available from Apple for Mac OS X Snow Leopard® and the upcoming release of Mac OS X Lion. Java SE 7 and future versions of Java for Mac OS X will be available from Oracle.

Apple is not dropping support for Java in Lion.

 

[elppa]

I heard that Apple was going to sell them the code they'd built over the past few years, but wasn't sure if that was true or not

Don't believe the rumours. There is no truth in it at all.

“We’re delighted to be working with Oracle to insure that there continues to be a great version of Java on the Mac,” said Bertrand Serlet, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “The best way for our users to always have the most up to date and secure version of Java will be to get it directly from Oracle.”

Apple also confirmed that Java SE 6 will continue to be available from Apple for Mac OS X Snow Leopard® and the upcoming release of Mac OS X Lion. Java SE 7 and future versions of Java for Mac OS X will be available from Oracle.

 

[slrandall]

Wonderful. So SE 6 will still be built in, but an upgrade to 7 will have to wait until Oracle's finished building its own version for Mac? That's better than I'd hoped. Do you happen to know the extent to which Apple will be facilitating Oracle's development, since they're apparently not simply selling them the code?

 

[jiminaus]

Wonderful. So SE 6 will still be built in, but an upgrade to 7 will have to wait until Oracle's finished building its own version for Mac? That's better than I'd hoped. Do you happen to know the extent to which Apple will be facilitating Oracle's development, since they're apparently not simply selling them the code?

The OpenJDK website is down. When it's back, the Mac OS X status page is at: http://openjdk.java.net/projects/macosx-port/

This blog post (of unknown reliability) suggests there will be a lag of a few months from when JDK 7 is released for Solaris, Linux and Window before the Mac OS X port is released. This seems reasonable to expect.

I can't see Apple having any vested interest in holding back the Mac OS X OpenJDK port. I would expect they'll contribute all the code they can.

 

[slrandall]

Alright. Thank you very much, you were a big help.

 

[foidulus]

The OpenJDK website is down. When it's back, the Mac OS X status page is at: http://openjdk.java.net/projects/macosx-port/

This blog post (of unknown reliability) suggests there will be a lag of a few months from when JDK 7 is released for Solaris, Linux and Window before the Mac OS X port is released. This seems reasonable to expect.

I can't see Apple having any vested interest in holding back the Mac OS X OpenJDK port. I would expect they'll contribute all the code they can.

The Apple engineers have said as much on the mailing lists, Apple has put a lot of effort into getting Java to run as well as possible on the mac, and right now they are working on integrating all that work into the main Open JDK codebase.