Steve Jobs on Apple's Discontinuing of Java

Steve Jobs has responded to email from a concerned developer after Apple announced it would cease future development of their version of Java for the Mac.

Apple posted the following release note on Thursday:

Java Deprecation
As of the release of Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 3, the Java runtime ported by Apple and that ships with Mac OS X is deprecated. Developers should not rely on the Apple-supplied Java runtime being present in 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.

Scott Fraser, CTO of Portico Systems, emailed the following letter to Steve Jobs expressing his concern:

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Mr. Jobs:

I am the CTO and founder of a Software company based in Philadelphia. We create and sell Enterprise software into the health care space.

Our software is Java based, and runs on both the server and the desktop. We have been in business for over 12 years now, and are a healthy growing company with about 180 employees.

I am a big Apple customer, as is my company. We love developing and testing Java based software on OS X.

Today in the news were stories like this: www.theregister.co.uk/2010/10/21/apple_threat ens_to_kill_...

and here's another example: news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-20020338-260.html

I am hoping you would consider commenting either to me or via your PR channels what are the future plans for the Java programming language and platform on OS X?

One last note - a growing trend over the last few years at all the software conferences I attend is the popularity of the Macbook laptops. Go to any non-Microsoft focused developers conference and the rooms are typically dominated by Mac laptops. One major reason for this is that OS X is a great platform for Java developers.

thanks,

Scott Fraser
CTO, Portico Systems
www.porticosys.com
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Sun (now Oracle) supplies Java for all other platforms. They have their own release schedules, which are almost always different than ours, so the Java we ship is always a version behind. This may not be the best way to do it.

Sent from my iPhone

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Jobs' reply indicates that Apple is hoping Oracle will supply Java for Mac; however, there is no indication of any agreement in place and Oracle has yet to step up to the plate publicly and announce they will offer Java for Mac alongside their other platform releases.

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