Java 6, Leopard, Apple, Sun, who's really to blame?

Oh dear, I fear I may be jumping on the bandwagon. Nonetheless, here I go...

By my count, at DZone, there are at least 7 articles written specifically about the lack of Java 6 on Apple's new OS, Leopard. Which means there's probably at least 700 written so far, scaling up by a reasonable factor for all those posts I missed, forums and whatnot.

Now here's the thing - everyone seems up in arms about APPLE not putting out Java 6 on Leopard, but this seems quite odd to me. In what I think is the best analysis so far, [Time Code] posts some very relevant thoughts, the most interesting of which is Gosling's own admission that he has abandoned the Mac. I remember reading about this a few weeks ago, but I dismissed it quickly, since it didn't seem that there was anything here other than pure self interest at play - of course Gosling would switch from an Apple built machine running OS X to a no-name machine running Solaris - which one does Sun have a better interest in seeing Gosling champion? Hmmm you do the math.

In other opinions around the 'sphere, Michael Urban, from DZone itself, writes that he is so angry he's selling every Mac he owns - scary stuff -- I'm glad I don't have to work with someone like that, but that's beside the point. His ire isn't directed at SUN, it's pointed at APPLE. We get a counter point from Jeff Shell, calling the Java community Cry Babies. After reading Michael's post, I think I see where Jeff's coming from. My buddy Steve Harris, fortunately a little more reserved in his judgement, also makes a practical point - we at Terracotta write only Java Software, and most of us, including yours truly, have Mac Laptops so there's a real practical problem at stake here.

What I fail to understand in all of this, and hope to bring to light, is that for all the ire pointed at APPLE, where's the anger at the real company to blame for all of this - SUN. Yes, that's right, SUN. The most ironic thing I find in Michael Urban's post is this quote: "and will spend most of its time running Windows". So let me get this straight, Michael. You're going to sell all of your Mac machines, in extreme protest against APPLE, and run WINDOWS? Let's not forget that MICROSOFT out and out tried to destroy Java a few years ago, and no longer produces a JDK either (self interest again - .NET competes with it so I don't blame them). It's not as if the Linux community is producing JDKs either - in fact no one out there can due to SUN's licensing problems which only went open source as of last year.

My point is, SUN is to blame here, not APPLE. Those of us using Mac machines have been shielded from the glaring omission that is SUN's lack of support for the Apple platform, and it wasn't very nice of Apple to simply throw us into the cold swimming pool without warning, but let's not blame APPLE for the fact that SUN is the real bad guy here. The Java 6 Download page is as telling as anything you could want. (Note that I cannot link to it directly since it requires a "Sun Login" which is about as stupid a thing as I can imagine, but we have no other choice so we dutifully login to get our fix...). It lists the following operating systems: Windows, Linux, Solaris SPARC, Solaris x86, Solaris x64, Linux x64, and Windows x64. What is missing from that picture??

So before everyone starts flaming away (which you will anyway, I know you want to) -- I am aware of the rumor that APPLE insists on doing their own JDK. Until someone can substantiate it, I am inclined to believe that if SUN really believed in the Mac platform, they could probably have inked a deal by now so that they can ensure the livelihood of Java on the Mac Platform - in other words, I cannot believe that Jobs could really enforce Sun to NOT support Java on the Mac platform. It's not as if Gates wants Java on Windows either, but it's there.

As a last sidenote, the thing that amazes me is that I am writing this Tuesday morning, Oct 30. It's been a mere 4 days since Leopard's release. It seems to me that if you are complaining about broken things with a brand new Operating System 4 days old, and particularly if you are complaining that your production systems are impacted because of it, you might want to re-think your rollout strategy when it comes to new software. Patience is going to be the key here, I hope in the meantime APPLE does the right thing and lets people in on their plans (which they won't, which is why people are so angry with them, and I get that). In the meantime, I would like to switch to Leopard, because it looks really cool, but it seems I'll have to wait for the first -dot- release, not just because Java 6 isn't on OS 10.5, but because the guy that runs our IT department has some sense in his head and imposed a company wide lockdown on company owned Macs -- no Leopard for us until the -dot- release.

Until then, if you're angry about Java support on the Mac, tell Sun why don't ya?