Month: October 2010

Mac OS X Java Apps I use

Having thought about what I actually use Java for on Mac OS X (now that Apple’s indicated it’s deprecated). Probably the main ones are

  • Eclipse (Free development environment for many languages, not just Java)
  • NeoOffice/OpenOffice (Free alternatives to Microsoft Office)
  • GanttProject, a free Gantt charting and project management app
  • FreeMind, a free mind mapping application

I guess I’ll just have to fire up Java under Windows in Parallels? I guess if I’m happy to give Google all my information I could replace my use of NeoOffice with Google Docs.

Apple deprecates Java on Mac OS X

Apple’s recently released Java for Mac OS X Update 3 includes the following information in the developer release notes:

As of the release of Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 3, the version of Java that is ported by Apple, and that ships with Mac OS X, is deprecated.

This means that the Apple-produced runtime will not be maintained at the same level, and may be removed from future versions of Mac OS X. The Java runtime shipping in Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, and Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, will continue to be supported and maintained through the standard support cycles of those products.

So, either Steve’s had a chat with Larry and Oracle’s going to be doing the Java build for Apple, or Apple isn’t going to have Java apps running on Mac OS X, which is going to add to the pain for educational institutions, and developers who want to write cross platform code more easily (although these days many would argue that this is possible with Javascript and HTML5 no doubt). No doubt it’s also that Java apps don’t look and feel so much like Mac Apps, which seems to be one of Steve’s reasons for ditching Flash.