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Apple and Oracle Announce Plans for OpenJDK Java Implementation

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Apr 12, 2001
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Apple and Oracle today announced a partnership to bring Oracle's OpenJDK project, and thus a Java SE 7 implementation, to Mac OS X.
Oracle and Apple today announced the OpenJDK project for Mac OS X. Apple will contribute most of the key components, tools and technology required for a Java SE 7 implementation on Mac OS X, including a 32-bit and 64-bit HotSpot-based Java virtual machine, class libraries, a networking stack and the foundation for a new graphical client. OpenJDK will make Apple's Java technology available to open source developers so they can access and contribute to the effort.
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Apple also noted that it will continue to support the current Java SE 6 on Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Lion.
"We are excited to welcome Apple as a significant contributor in the growing OpenJDK community," said Hasan Rizvi, Oracle's senior vice president of Development. "The availability of Java on Mac OS X plays a key role in the cross-platform promise of the Java platform. The Java developer community can rest assured that the leading edge Java environment will continue to be available on Mac OS X in the future. Combined with last month's announcement of IBM joining the OpenJDK, the project now has the backing of three of the biggest names in software."
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Apple made waves last month with the revelation that is planning to deprecate its own line of custom-ported Java packages, sparking fears of a complete discontinuation of support for the platform. In an email response to a customer's question, Apple CEO Steve Jobs reportedly noted that Apple's Java version was always a step behind the latest version from Sun/Oracle and that the status quo "may not be the best way to do it."

Article Link: Apple and Oracle Announce Plans for OpenJDK Java Implementation
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2010/11/12/apple-and-oracle-announce-plans-for-openjdk-java-implementation/
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To everyone who implied I was full of crap when I said this was in the works, "I TOLD YOU SO!"
 
MacRumors said:
Apple also noted that it will continue to support the current Java SE 6 on Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Lion.
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So Apple will actually continue to ship Java SE 6 with Lion? That seems to be an important clarification, since the previous news of deprecated Java support from Apple implied that Apple would stop shipping Java with Lion just like they are stopping shipping Flash bundled, so they no longer need to support them through OS updates. Shipping Java SE 6 in Lion would mean Apple will continue to be developing their own internal Java implementation for quite some time, not just through Snow Leopard's life cycle, probably about 2.5 yrs remaining, but now Lion for another ~4 years once it launches.

I wonder how this OpenJDK Mac support will be implemented? Will OpenJDK directly release binaries for Mac or will it be like Apple's WebKit and XQuartz support, where they contribute to the open source code, but split off internal branches and develop their own applications bundled in OS X, so the "official" implementation will still be released through Apple?
 
commander.data said:
So Apple will actually continue to ship Java SE 6 with Lion? That seems to be an important clarification, since the previous news of deprecated Java support from Apple implied that Apple would stop shipping Java with Lion just like they are stopping shipping Flash bundled, so they no longer need to support them through OS updates. Shipping Java SE 6 in Lion would mean Apple will continue to be developing their own internal Java implementation for quite some time, not just through Snow Leopard's life cycle, probably about 2.5 yrs remaining, but now Lion for another ~4 years once it launches.
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It was only speculation and hype that Java would not be included in Lion. Apple only said that it may be removed from future versions.

I bet we'll see OpenJDK reasonably soon, though.
 
Apple should learn to make these announcements at the same time they announce they are discontinuing support for their own stuff. That would leave less people hanging with no migration path.

This one was pretty evident it was coming, I don't see why Apple couldn't just wait until all the details were finalized to simply make 1 announcement and thus cut off all the drama.
 
Fantastic.

Why couldn't Apple announce this on the day they deprecated Java. Its a shame Apple don't put as much effort into their communications as they do in their creativity. There is absolutely no reason why these two couldn't be annouced at the same time...
 
KnightWRX said:
Apple should learn to make these announcements at the same time they announce they are discontinuing support for their own stuff. That would leave less people hanging with no migration path.

This one was pretty evident it was coming, I don't see why Apple couldn't just wait until all the details were finalized to simply make 1 announcement and thus cut off all the drama.
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Perhaps Apple asked Oracle and Oracle said no, so they announced they were pulling the plug to foster anti-Oracle outrage, thus helping convince them.
 
Stella said:
Fantastic.

Why couldn't Apple announce this on the day they deprecated Java. Its a shame Apple don't put as much effort into their communications as they do in their creativity. There is absolutely no reason why these two couldn't be annouced at the same time...
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^This

If Apple had announced both these together, it would have been a great announcement for the future of Java on OS X, and made a whole lot of sense. However, doing it the way they did (by simply dismissing Java with no simultaneous announcement of the roadmap going forwards) just caused a lot of unnecessary angst and bad will with their Java users.
 
Boghog said:
Please enlighten me. What are the implications of this?
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You can continue developing Java on the Mac platform. You can continue running OS X based Java server environments.

Perhaps less important, you can continue to run Java client applications on the Mac desktop or in the browser plugin.

You can keep playing Minecraft :)
 
Boghog said:
Please enlighten me. What are the implications of this?
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That Oracle now handles all development of Java clients for the Mac instead of Apple doing it and being a version or two behind. At least that's how I understand it.
 
WestonHarvey1 said:
Perhaps Apple asked Oracle and Oracle said no, so they announced they were pulling the plug to foster anti-Oracle outrage, thus helping convince them.
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Except I recall the outrage being at Apple leaving the Java people stranded. :rolleyes:

But seriously, Apple always does stuff like this. This makes me wonder if we won't see a VMWare/Apple announcement in the wake of the Xserve fiasco.
 
Because...

Drama = Advertisement. Think about all the people talking about Java being EOL, and what will we do now? Apple got two things out of this. First, some real idea of how important Java is to the community. Imagine what would have happened if most peoples reaction was: "meh."

Second all that beautiful free word of mouth advertisement.

Of course this sounds like a development community that is open (like say Ajax on the iPhone), and with the new app store for OS X, one that is closed (like the app store on the iPhone).

Sounds like win, win for the corporate guys.
 
Maybe the public outrage was necessary?

markm49uk said:
Hope all the doom mongers and Apple haters suck it up now.
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Despite the fact that this is GREAT news, one still has to wonder about Apples communication skills: If this deal has been in the works, why would Apple announce the deprecation? Do they just suck or sometimes not think straight? Or did the public outrage get the to sign the deal in the first place? :confused:

will
 
KnightWRX said:
Except I recall the outrage being at Apple leaving the Java people stranded. :rolleyes:

But seriously, Apple always does stuff like this. This makes me wonder if we won't see a VMWare/Apple announcement in the wake of the Xserve fiasco.
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But I think a lot of dev shops called Oracle (ours did), not Apple, to complain, because they knew appealing to Apple was pointless.
 
Apple deprecated Java 6 because of the Mac App store

Apple deprecated Java 6 before the OpenJDK Java 7 announcement because Apple was opening the Mac App store - where deprecated technology is not allowed in apps, and third party technology is also not allowed in apps.

Thus Apple did not want to be inundated with Java 6 apps in the Mac App store.
 
KnightWRX said:
Apple should learn to make these announcements at the same time they announce they are discontinuing support for their own stuff. That would leave less people hanging with no migration path.

This one was pretty evident it was coming, I don't see why Apple couldn't just wait until all the details were finalized to simply make 1 announcement and thus cut off all the drama.
Click to expand...

Hope they have something coming to replace the Xserves! ;)
 
ff_will said:
Despite the fact that this is GREAT news, one still has to wonder about Apples communication skills: If this deal has been in the works, why would Apple announce the deprecation? Do they just suck or sometimes not think straight? Or did the public outrage get the to sign the deal in the first place? :confused:

will
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Fact is, despite fandroids and microsofties claims about Apple's success being a result of them being a master marketing machine, Apple is pretty piss poor at public communication.

I won't deny their great marketing skills, but their PR skills are terrible. If you look back, nearly every major "controversy" they faced could have been avoided if they had better communication, or if they had prevented Steve Jobs from sending out an unwarranted 3 word email.

I know Apple's success makes it hard to realize this, but Apple is not finding the transition from small computer company which makes a best selling MP3 player to major computer company with the hottest computing and mobile platform in the world.
 
617arg said:
Hope they have something coming to replace the Xserves! ;)
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Sure there is! We have a couple PowerMac G5 servers with a Redco rackmount kit (takes 12U!), so people should have no problem doing the same with the new Mac Pro Server!
 
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