Oracle, Apple make up over Java, unveil OpenJDK project for Mac
Oracle and Apple on Friday announced the OpenJDK project in a move that will give Java a stable port on the Mac OS X.
There are a lot of ways to read between the lines on this Oracle-Apple agreement. Under the terms of the deal, Apple will contribute components, tools and technology required for a Java SE 7 implementation on Mac OS X. This implementation includes a 32-bit and 64-bit HotSpot-based Java virtual machine, class libraries, a networking stack and the foundation for a new graphical client.
From there, OpenJDK will make Apple’s Java technology available to open source developers.
So what's the big deal? When Apple Steve Jobs unveiled the Mac App Store last month, the review guidelines dinged "deprecated" technologies such as Java. That raised a flurry of speculation about the future of Java on Apple. Also see: Apple unbundles Flash Player from Mac OS X; Java next
This agreement could head those concerns off. Java on the Mac was neglected and now the OpenJDK can bring it up to speed.
The other way to read this is that Oracle blinked. Apple could have just said no Java on the Mac App Store. Now there appears to be a happy ending for Java.
Apple confirmed it will allow Java SE 6 to continue on upcoming Mac OS versions---Lion.
Oracle said it will make available Java SE 7 and future versions for the Mac (basically saying it won't neglect Apple again).
And everyone has quotes about how things are cross platform and wonderful. Oracle also touted that IBM is in the OpenJDK club too.
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