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Apple to contribute its Java source to the OpenJDK project

Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2010 8:17 am
by kirkmc
It's no surprise, but some people though that Apple's decision to deprecate Java meant that it would no longer support Java at all. The company has announced that they're providing their Java source code to the OpenJDK project.

http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/ ... _mac_deal/

Posted here because of CGoban, obviously...

Re: Apple to contribute its Java source to the OpenJDK proje

Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2010 8:31 am
by appleseeds
Will Apple's new approach to Java have any effect on go players running CGoban/KGS on a mac?

Re: Apple to contribute its Java source to the OpenJDK proje

Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2010 8:47 am
by Li Kao
Sounds to like there are two consequences:
1) CGoban can't be offered in the new AppStore for OS-X, which doesn't hurt distribution outside of the AppStore
2) Future version of Mac Java will be based on OpenJDK. Not sure if that'll cause problems since there are some complaints about CGoban+OpenJDK on Linux.

Re: Apple to contribute its Java source to the OpenJDK proje

Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2010 9:15 am
by kirkmc
Regarding 1), you do realize that Apple is not limiting applications on Mac OS X to those sold in their new App Store, right? So people will get and use CGoban the same way as they always have.

Re: Apple to contribute its Java source to the OpenJDK proje

Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2010 9:17 am
by Li Kao
kirkmc wrote:Regarding 1), you do realize that Apple is not limiting applications on Mac OS X to those sold in their new App Store, right? So people will get and use CGoban the same way as they always have.

Yes I know that, but I've edited it for clarity now.

Re: Apple to contribute its Java source to the OpenJDK proje

Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2010 10:22 am
by hyperpape
Li Kao wrote:Sounds to like there are two consequences:
1) CGoban can't be offered in the new AppStore for OS-X, which doesn't hurt distribution outside of the AppStore.


Is that because all app store apps have to be written in Objective C? I haven't read up on the new AppStore rules.

Re: Apple to contribute its Java source to the OpenJDK proje

Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2010 10:26 am
by wms
In general openJDK has had a lot of bugs. I don't think that they test very well. If they become the "standard" Apple Java, then I just hope that they improve their regression testing...so this could be good or bad.

Re: Apple to contribute its Java source to the OpenJDK proje

Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2010 1:09 pm
by flOvermind
It's not that the "official" Apple Java was that good ;)

At least the colleagues of me who are using Macs took the message about Apple abandoding their separate Java version as extremely good news, because finally Java on Mac can become the stable and reliable platform that it is on Windows and Linux...

Regarding OpenJDK: Yes, it has several disadvantages compared to the "official" (Sun) JDK. The plan of Sun was to gradually move features over, so that the OpenJDK 7 would be as good as the official Java 7. I'm not sure what Oracle's position on that is, and whether they plan to release a closed-source version of Java for Mac, now that Apple does not... I guess we'll have to wait until the dust settles a bit before making any predictions ;)

Re: Apple to contribute its Java source to the OpenJDK proje

Posted: Mon Nov 15, 2010 2:18 am
by kirkmc
flOvermind wrote:It's not that the "official" Apple Java was that good ;)

At least the colleagues of me who are using Macs took the message about Apple abandoding their separate Java version as extremely good news, because finally Java on Mac can become the stable and reliable platform that it is on Windows and Linux...

Regarding OpenJDK: Yes, it has several disadvantages compared to the "official" (Sun) JDK. The plan of Sun was to gradually move features over, so that the OpenJDK 7 would be as good as the official Java 7. I'm not sure what Oracle's position on that is, and whether they plan to release a closed-source version of Java for Mac, now that Apple does not... I guess we'll have to wait until the dust settles a bit before making any predictions ;)


It's not "now that Apple does not" offer it. They haven't given a timeline yet. They announced that it was "deprecated," and that they would eventually stop providing it, but not when. I'm sure they're waiting until there are viable alternatives.