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Macworld: Java 2 for the Mac almost ready
Macintosh enthusiasts must wait for Mac OS X to finally see solid Java 2 support
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The promise of Java 2 on the Mac won't be realized until Mac OS X is released later this year. Although this summer's Macworld mostly featured hardware announcements, the occasion provided an opportunity to look once again at the state of Java on the Mac. In this article, we'll combine the news from the Macworld keynote, the Expo floor, and the conference session on Java on the Mac. We'll also complete the picture with items from this summer's JavaOne developer conference.
The JavaOne keynote
In the past, Apple and Sun have blamed each other for the lack of Java support on the Mac. Both have made several promises that the situation would change and that the lag between the release of Java products for the Windows platform and their release for Mac OS would be greatly reduced. Last year, Apple was a gold sponsor at JavaOne, and yet Sun CEO Scott McNeally still dismissed the importance of having Java on the Mac at his keynote address.
This year, the situation was surprisingly different. Steve Jobs joined McNeally during the opening keynote address at JavaOne. The exchange was a public commitment that the two companies would work together to ensure the quality of J2SE on the Mac. You may have already seen a line or two from the exchange; for those of you who may have missed it, here is a recap of what was said at the JavaOne keynote.
Scott McNeally introduced Jobs by saying, "When it comes to Java developer passion we have a new leader and a new advocate. This is somebody who knows more about developer passion. Actually, he is one of my personal heroes, because he really paved the way for us kids to go out and try to do something different in the Valley. [Jobs] really made it easy for four 27-year-olds to go out and raise venture capital eighteen years ago when we started the company. [He's] a good buddy of mine, and [it's] a real thrill to have him here -- finally."
In his turn, Steve Jobs, to thunderous applause, stressed that Apple was back and selling a lot of computers, saying, "It's good to be here today. As you know, we have 25 million computers out there. We ship about five million a year. But to be honest, I think some of you have not been thrilled with Java on the Mac."
McNeally added, "Like my wife."
Jobs continued, "The reason for that is Sun and Apple haven't worked that closely on Java in the past."
"That was your fault," interrupted McNeally. "I think we had a hard time feeling like the [Mac] Java desktop strategy was working with us."
"And you guys were putting Java in light bulbs and everything else," answered Jobs.
Jobs then keyed in on his message: "We want to bring Java back to the desktop in a really big way. I'm here today to personally tell you we are working hard to make Mac the best Java delivery vehicle on the planet. The biggest thing we are doing is we are going to bundle Java 2 SE into every single copy of Mac OS X [the upcoming Macintosh operating system] that we ship later on this year."
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Resources
- The Macworld Expo Website can be found at
http://www.macworldexpo.com/ - For more on Apple's Java efforts, see the company's Java developers' page at
http://developer.apple.com/java/ - The Apple WebObjects product page can be found at
http://www.apple.com/webobjects/ - "Apple Drops WebObjects License Price From 0,000 to 99" -- press release detailing Apple's WebObjects price reduction and
the company's plans for Java-based version
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2000/may/15webobjects.html - Zap Business Communications Systems
http://www.zapbcs.com/zapbcs/zapbcs.html - Metrowerks
http://www.metrowerks.com/
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