Apple may be in discussion with Sun to take over JDK development for Mac OS X

It wouldn't have costed Apple a penny to put out a tiny statement during the recent Java uproars! Even an semi-official hint on some developer blog would have been totally fine. Something like

"Apple is delighted to announce its continued enthusiasm for the Java platform. Please give us some more time to make sure that everything is as stable as possible on Leopard before we release it to you guys."

That it did not happen is telling. See, if you can make at least 50% of your critics happy again with a simple statement, you would usually do it! Right? So what's going on?

Times have changed! When Apple overtook JDK development on a relatively young OS X, they were the best party for making it

1. look sexy
2. work throughout substantial future kernel and library changes

For 1. Sun really hadn't had the best track record, for 2. Apple didn't want to have to call Sun before every change of the kernel or graphic subsystems.

Where are we today? The kernel has got a stable API since 10.4. The excellent graphics foundations (Core, QuartzGL, ...) are also stable in both 32 and 64 bit versions. Nowadays it would be much easier for Sun to take over development while using only Apple's public and stable interfaces for talking to the OS. Much less insider knowledge from Apple is needed anymore to get it running smoothly. Most Java 6 Look & Feels could be ported from other JRE's, for Mac native looking stuff Cocoa could be put under the hood.

The negotiations are probably quite hard. Both Sun and Apple's view on Java have changed substantially over the years. Sun open-sourced Java and is earning most of its money on professional grade Java services today. Apple doesn't really need Java at all costs anymore (consumer market share has exploded).

Both parties would need to get straightened out how much future Mac Java efforts are worth to them today (and on Apple's side also old promises to its customers). My guess would be that Sun is going to take over again, sponsored by a free Apple dev team for the initial Core-/Cocoa-JRE port. The number of free devs is going to decrease over time. As soon as Sun's new JRE is able to run completely on top of any provided API's, they can leave their cages in Santa Clara and head for Cupertino again.

Reports of Apple deleting Java developer threads in its discussion boards

Apple is apparently silencing developers complaining about the missing Java 6 in their forums.

A user calling himself 'Blacky' writes:

Ontopic now: I'm disgusted about how apple handles developers, my eclipse is crashing on leopard, I don't hava java 6, I don't have any word if there ever will be one, ...

I posted on the thread on apple's own discussion board, the frecking thread got deleted!!!

Taking all this into account I wouldn't bet my money on the new Ruby and Python support, either. Just don't buy a shiny park of Mac Pro's for your developer shop, yet - as many Java folks once did. The buzzed up Xcode may look compelling to you today, but it might become unsupported before your first large development project even reaches the finish line. Listen to Jobs presenting his toys onstage, but better don't give too much about his promises to developers again.

No Java 6 in Leopard Retail!

Lousy news from Apple! Remember how they baited developers to the Mac platform by announcing most comprehensive Java support? How they advertised true interoperability for developers, which just happend to look much sexier on a Mac? How they showed off articels about running Eclipse and Netbeans almost natively looking on your Mac? All bullshit!

They are following Microsoft's path now and try to tie you to their flashy Xcode platform. That's a great tool if you're developing exclusively for a Mac - as Visual Studio is for Windows... But I'll dump both happily anytime for a fully loaded Eclipse - supported and steadily improved by a tremendous community! Java really evolved over the years into being my my most favorite and even beloved language. It is very stable, and scales exceptionally well, mostly due to its excellent support for multi threaded develeopment. How can threading get any easier than by using, for example, the excellent ThreadPools? As any language, it has its faults, but at the bottom line it has become so mature and extensive, that I don't want to miss it anymore. Shame on Apple for this scam!

Some may have forseen this. Tell me a longer developer preview than Java 6 for Mac OS X. But I would have at least expected, that they finally get their act together for Leopard's launch.

The following screenshot shows the final retail version of Leopard bluntly missing Java 6.