Everybody should calm down a bit and wait until we know for sure that this isn’t a move to push off the Java responsibility to Oracle instead of Apple. This would be good news since Oracle/Sun is much faster at fixing java issues than Apple.
"Push"
is bad. If this is not a coordinated effort it will go badly for Mac users. Apple can't just show up at Oracle's doorstep and say "We decided to punt this entirely back into your hands. By the way we just put Mac Java into deprecated mode. Have a nice day. "
Sure Oracle might pick up a port. The transition though will be extremely rocky though. If Apple is out to scare folks off of Java with FUD then this is bad for users.
If Apple has been trying to work with Oracle on a transition and they both screwed up the annoucement of this transition then fine. Maybe taking ownership is caught up in some internal Oracle war. Entirely belivable.
However, as someone said. Ellison passing up an opportunity to crow about how Oracle is going get Java ported to Mac right ... way better than Sun even managed to accomplish .... I also don't see him passing that up.
The recent IBM / Oracle announcement
http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/press/176988
Not assuming ill of either side I suspect that Oracle might have been hoping Apple would jump into the the OpenJDK project since IBM wanted to go that way anyway. I suspect that Apple doesn't want to go the open source route with their modifications and supporting X11 bindings just isn't their style.
It would have been nice if Apple announced deprecated and where going to assign some folks to OpenJDK. Or even just let folks know they were working on some kind of handoff. Instead get the typical obtuse "notification from the Kremlin" that Java is "out of favor" with the Politburo.
The less third-party frameworks (Flash/Java) that Apple has to maintain is a good thing, not a bad thing.
Oh you mean like Unix/Posix ??
Or the variety of OpenSource components that add functionality to Mac OS X (client and server).
Is supporting a JRE hugely different (in other than scope) than supporting the standard c/c++ libraries ?
Apple could transition to just making relatively much smaller contributions to OpenJDK. I doubt they would because it is covered in GPL and Apple doesn't like GPL. I don't think it is just 3rd party frameworks. It is also controlling their mods.
Apple is starting to get a lot of influence on the market that those companies can not ignore Apple anymore like they did in the past.
Apple has a disproportionate share of the hype. Not necessarily the influence ( Mac OS X is still 4-6% of market. iOS doesn't really help if 3rd parties are banned. ) . Apple is "hot" but is so far as Apple doesn't open up opportunities for them to make money other established players aren't going to go along once the "shine" wears off. If Apple doesn't present a way for Oracle to make money, they aren't going to do it.
