Here We Go Again, aka Java 6 On OS X

A new release of Java, a new wave of people saying they won’t buy Macs unless Apple get their Java update now, dammit now! John O’Conner joins the chorus. Of course, there’s no mention of why he needs Java 6 instead of Java 5, just that he has to be up to date with the very latest. Last time round at least people were eager to use generics and other new language features, but there’s really not that much that changed in Java 6 outside of a few specific cases.

Seriously folks, the vast, vast majority of Java developers aren’t using Java 6 and won’t be for quite some time. I know it’s fun to play around on the bleeding edge but can we just stop and look at what’s actually best for our projects?

On the plus side, by the time we do this with Java 7 the answer will be simple – it’s opensource, port it yourself. Then maybe people will appreciate how difficult porting a JVM to a new processor architecture and OS and understand how long it takes.