In the past days I went desperately on different websites looking for fast answers at the big question: Why Java 6 is not in the Mac Os X Leopard distribution? Forums and blogs have their own threads and articles about it and I want to share with you my personal thought.
Talking about bad things, on one of my past projects I have been working with Java 6 and MSWindows a lot (1 year ago); having the brand new Macbook with Leopard and not be able to run my super application sucks!
Talking about good things, the Java 5 SDK provided out of the box, seems to work pretty smoothly and it looks like a good SDK that doesn't need any further installations or setup to be deployed, the custom Swing library looks great and the overall performances seem very reliable (using well-known application server for example).
What make me think about this problem is the feeling that the idea of bringing the JSDK to the super fast open-source world is splitting the future of Java; on one side we will see in the future the latest versions of the SDK on the best supported operative systems (Windows, Linux, Solaris), where latest versions doesn't mean having the best development platform ever; on the other side we will have a more conservative approach (see Leopard example) where the stability and the quality will prevail against the latest features needs.
Said so, splitting the future of the Java implementations would go against the Code Once Run Everywhere concept!
Getting to my final thought, Apple IS committed to provide a great Java developer machine and THAT doesn't mean that Java 6 needs to be supported right away BUT!!!!!! please Apple HURRY UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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