The preview version includes Java SE 6 version 1.6.0_01, and requires both a 64-bit Intel processor (Xeon or Core 2 Duo) and 10.5.1 to run. Since it's a preview release, Java 6 is not installed as the default version, but simply as another available Java version that can be used for testing. ![]() Sure, it's still a development version, but this release is great news for Java developer on OS X since it provides them with an officially-sanctioned version of the newest version of Java. Well, Steve Jobs must be stalking me or something, because I've got some good news: Apple has released Java 6 Developer Preview 8, the first official Java 6 implementation for Leopard. Both times, I discussed developers' frustration with the lack of an official Java 6 release on Leopard. His email address is more by Gregg Keizer on the past few weeks, I've covered both the unofficial port of the Java 6 JDK to Leopard and the recent Java update for Tiger. Follow Gregg on Twitter at on Google+ or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed. Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. If Apple continues support for Java 6 on Snow Leopard, it will issue that update the same day. The next scheduled Java 7 update is set for April 16. OS X Lion and Mountain Lion users who require Java should upgrade as soon as possible to Java 7, which Oracle plans to maintain at least until July 2014, and Apple may support even longer. Oracle had also extended Java 6's EOL, or "end-of-life," twice last year, first from July to November 2012, then again from November 2012 to February 2013. Previously, Oracle had said it would end public support for Java 6 with its Feb. ![]() Ironically, Monday's update was a bonus for both Windows and Mac users. The massive numbers of customers who remain on Snow Leopard - as of last month, OS X 10.6 powered 27.5% of all Macs - might also weigh in Apple's decision. (Apple shipped a security update for OS X 10.6 in September, for example, alongside the most recent fixes for Lion and Mountain Lion.)Īpple might want to play it safe and continue to patch Java for Snow Leopard, both because of the recent rash of Java "zero-days," or vulnerabilities exploited before they have been patched, and because Apple was embarrassed last year when a then-unpatched Java bug gave hackers a way to infect hundreds of thousands of Macs in the widespread "Flashback" malware campaign. Leopard's support cycle has long ended - the last Java update for OS X 10.5 was issued in mid-2011, and its last security update released in May 2012 - but Snow Leopard's has not come to an end. "The Java runtime shipping in OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard, and OS X v10.5 Leopard, will continue to be supported and maintained through the standard support cycles of those products," Apple said at the time. The closest Apple has come to that was when it deprecated Java, telling developers that it would no longer ship Java with OS X. If Apple follows that same timeline, it will support Java 6 for approximately a year and a half, or deep into 2014. ![]() Those patches were for flaws that Oracle - by then it had acquired Sun and taken control of Java - identified as fixes for its business customers. But Apple continued to issue Java 5 updates for Leopard until June 2011, when it released patches that it said pushed the software up to Java 5u30. Sun stopped Java 5 support with Java 5 Update 22 (Java 5u22), which it released Nov. The future is murky, as it always is with Apple support - unlike Microsoft, the company does not spell out its support policies in black and white - but there is precedent.įor OS X 10.5, known as Leopard, Apple provided Java 5 updates well after Sun Microsystems, the creator and former owner of Java, stopped serving public patches. And if the past is any indicator, Apple will have access to those only-for-corporate-customers patches and will use them to draft updates for its own users. Oracle will continue to come up with security patches for Java 6, but those will only be distributed to enterprises that have negotiated contract support plans with Oracle. Contrary to what Computerworld reported in December, when it said Snow Leopard users would be without Java 6 security updates as soon as Oracle pulled the plug, further investigation has provided more than a glimmer of hope.Īpple relies on Oracle to craft Java 6 patches, and so without Oracle creating patches, Apple would seemingly have nothing to distribute.
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