Java 6 on the Mac
So Java 6 has been released for the Mac.
And there is a great amount of wailing. "Oh why oh why doesn't it work on xxxx. My (mom/customers/developers) need it on xxxxx."
This followed the last six months of "Why isn't Java 6 on Leopard." Which was preceded by a year of "Hey, Java 6 is out. How come it's not on Tiger?"
And although, for the most part, not having Java 6 on the Mac didn't really have any impact on my life -- I could be somewhat sympathetic with this view. I like Java. I like the Mac. I would love for these two taste-treats to get along and work together.
And then something changed.
Sun said they would write the Java port for the iPhone. Whether they end up doing this or not, it told me that when Sun has a platform they value, they will put resources behind it. Sun has written the Java port for Windows and for Linux. They say they will write for the iPhone -- so they could have written for the Mac if they had valued the platform.
I don't argue with the criticism of Apple that so many Java developers are and have been raising. They say "Apple just doesn't care about Java." That's not entirely true. Over the years Apple has committed a lot of resources to Java and has endured public complaints from folks like James Gosling. When you think about it, that is an unusual way for Sun to treat a licensee. Java.net editor Chris Adamson has often blogged that Apple is in the business of selling Macs and they need to evaluate how supporting Java would further that end.
So let's accept for the moment that there is some truth in the statement that "Apple just doesn't care about Java." What about the flip side? How much does Sun care about Mac developers and users? When Sun looks at the Apple mind share and market share what do they see? They clearly haven't seen enough in the past to support development of Java for the Mac.
There is a big message in Sun's choosing to support Java on Linux over Java on the Mac. The decision isn't a bad one. The decision isn't a wrong one. It is a decision that points to Sun's priorities.
What I don't understand is why people are so angry with Apple for making decisions in line with their priorities.
I don't think there's a villain here -- just two companies evaluating how best to allocate their resources.
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Comments (3)
Read More Entries by Daniel H. Steinberg.
The problem is that it undermines Java for all platforms. The whole point of Java that it works on all major platforms. If I want to do something for Windows alone, .NET is a better tool. If it doesn't work on Mac OS, then it's not clear to me why I would want to use it anywhere.
"but no-one expected Apple to drop support for 18 month old Intels and applets."
Well, after all I did expect that because I've learned that in the Apple - Java history the worse expectations are the most probable ones. So, after seeing the first new previews of Java 6 being only Intel 64, the games appeared over for me.
Add to this that not only Apple doesn't anticipate anything - contrast this with Sun's policy e.g. related to Java 6 Update 10, that will be released in Fall but we already know from a few time what is about, and we have previews, and we can download and try them and criticize and blog about them - while all the Apple's previews are covered by NDA - and you get how huge is the difference in Sun's and Apple's attitude towards the community, and why people are so angry.
I see that Gosling has been mentioned. I would only like to mention that a few years ago Gosling was enthusiastic about Mac OS X, the first professionals developing on MAc OS X I've ever seen were Sun's engineers, and Gosling was even mentioned in the specific Java page at Apples'. So *maybe* it's just that things changed over the years? *Maybe* it's that Jobs in 2001 had to find as many friends as possible since he had to save Apple from failure, so at the time the commitment was about offering the best platform for Java. It was true in the past, now obviously isn't the same. Apple is obviously free to change their mind, but we would appreciate knowing that and not waiting for a couple of years to learn this from the facts.
I'm not saying Sun is without faults. Sun made a Mac OS X version at the time of System 9 which I'm told about it was ugly (don't know personally, I wasn't Apple user at the time). Given that Sun has being refocused on the desktop since a few years, I think it should take care of Mac OS X as well as the iPhone, even if there are clearly huge numbers in the field - but Mac OS X is very representative for the "upper class" desktop applications. But it's also true that Sun put everything in the open source and this means that the community must take a role here. From my perspective this role has been accepted and in fact we have SoyLatte, with many blocking limitations on the desktop for now, but very promising. I'm positive about having these limitations fixed in times not too long. In the meantime, if Apple's attitude towards the community was the same, they could donate their Cocoa binding: this would make everybody happy. But they are not doing that, I don't think they will ever do and this is another huge style difference between the two corporates.
I don't think people are angry with Apple because of their priorities, largely because no-one knows what they are. We can read the tea leaves, look at the evidence or look at what Apple has actually said. If we go with what Apple has told us, then we'd all be developing on the "best Java platform". Even judging Apple's actions by reading the tea leaves is impossible. Java 6 used to work on the G5 on Tiger in beta. Many people expected Apple to force Leopard on Java developers, but no-one expected Apple to drop support for 18 month old Intels and applets.
Java developers are angry with Apple because Apple's North Korean-like communications policy is harmful to professionals. Apple withholds information of great strategic value its professional customers for no other reason than policy. This is not restricted to Java though, it's just that Java developers have no choice. When a professional photographer is considering purchasing a new camera model they can either buy Aperture and just pray that Apple releases RAW support by the time they need it (if ever), or they can check the Adobe web site to find if and when the model will be supported by Lightroom. It's no surprise that Lightroom is the more popular product.