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Looks like they pulled the article. I do agree though... so what? Who really uses the built in version of language-x on their machine? Mucking around with th

Looks like they pulled the article. I do agree though... so what? Who really uses the built in version of language-x on their machine? Mucking around with the system's version of Java, Ruby, Python, etc is a great way to cause problems for yourself later down the road.

mgkimsal 16y ago
There's no 'officially supported' binaries from anyone else. Most people I know (on most platforms, not just OSX) use precompiled binaries from somewhere (apt/yum repos, DMG files, etc). Without officially provided binaries for Java from Apple, OSX users are left without any solid direction at this point. Will some company step up and provide regularly updated binaries tested for various OSX systems? Maybe. But that's not known at this point, so everyone's left wondering. Sun should never have ceded this degree of control over Java's implementation to Apple (or other companies), and Oracle needs to step up soon to provide peace of mind (or at least clarity) to Java developers. There's been so much focus the past few days on "Java GUI is dead" etc, and swing/swt/x11 conversations about Apple's desktop Java bindings and such, there's been little attention that most people are using Java for back-end non-GUI stuff. This removal hurts Mac owners who develop Java for non-GUI apps - arguably the largest share of Java/Mac people out there.
- tzs 16y ago
  > Without officially provided binaries for Java from Apple, OSX users are left without any solid direction at this point. Apple said Java will continue to be supported and maintained on Leopard and Snow Leopard through the standard support lifetime of those products. That's something like 4 years from now for Snow Leopard. > There's been so much focus the past few days on "Java GUI is dead" etc, and swing/swt/x11 conversations about Apple's desktop Java bindings and such, there's been little attention that most people are using Java for back-end non-GUI stuff. This removal hurts Mac owners who develop Java for non-GUI apps - arguably the largest share of Java/Mac people out there. Isn't the bulk of the work Apple did in the GUI area? For non-GUI work, a relatively simple port of, say, the BSD port of OpenJDK should be just fine.
  - mgkimsal 16y ago
    "For non-GUI work, a relatively simple port of, say, the BSD port of OpenJDK should be just fine." If it's so simple, why hasn't anyone packaged this up yet and made it a project? Yes, Apple will continue to maintain current Java on current OS for forseeable future. Given that they've tended to lag behind on most updates anyway (for various reasons) this doesn't fill me with much enthusiasm. But... that's not what I was referring to. "OSX users are left without any solid direction at this point." I'd meant there's no direction as to who, if anyone, is going to provide workable Java packages for OSX users.
    - PatrickTulskie 16y ago
      Hopefully Oracle will step up and provide the binaries like they do for every other operating system.

mgkimsal 16y ago

There's no 'officially supported' binaries from anyone else. Most people I know (on most platforms, not just OSX) use precompiled binaries from somewhere (apt/yum repos, DMG files, etc). Without officially provided binaries for Java from Apple, OSX users are left without any solid direction at this point. Will some company step up and provide regularly updated binaries tested for various OSX systems? Maybe. But that's not known at this point, so everyone's left wondering. Sun should never have ceded this degree of control over Java's implementation to Apple (or other companies), and Oracle needs to step up soon to provide peace of mind (or at least clarity) to Java developers. There's been so much focus the past few days on "Java GUI is dead" etc, and swing/swt/x11 conversations about Apple's desktop Java bindings and such, there's been little attention that most people are using Java for back-end non-GUI stuff. This removal hurts Mac owners who develop Java for non-GUI apps - arguably the largest share of Java/Mac people out there.

tzs 16y ago
> Without officially provided binaries for Java from Apple, OSX users are left without any solid direction at this point. Apple said Java will continue to be supported and maintained on Leopard and Snow Leopard through the standard support lifetime of those products. That's something like 4 years from now for Snow Leopard. > There's been so much focus the past few days on "Java GUI is dead" etc, and swing/swt/x11 conversations about Apple's desktop Java bindings and such, there's been little attention that most people are using Java for back-end non-GUI stuff. This removal hurts Mac owners who develop Java for non-GUI apps - arguably the largest share of Java/Mac people out there. Isn't the bulk of the work Apple did in the GUI area? For non-GUI work, a relatively simple port of, say, the BSD port of OpenJDK should be just fine.
- mgkimsal 16y ago
  "For non-GUI work, a relatively simple port of, say, the BSD port of OpenJDK should be just fine." If it's so simple, why hasn't anyone packaged this up yet and made it a project? Yes, Apple will continue to maintain current Java on current OS for forseeable future. Given that they've tended to lag behind on most updates anyway (for various reasons) this doesn't fill me with much enthusiasm. But... that's not what I was referring to. "OSX users are left without any solid direction at this point." I'd meant there's no direction as to who, if anyone, is going to provide workable Java packages for OSX users.
  - PatrickTulskie 16y ago
    Hopefully Oracle will step up and provide the binaries like they do for every other operating system.