All through college, I lived and breathed Java. I really cared what version Apple was supporting with its OS. Now, not so much. However, after dedicating so much time to the language, I feel obligated to keep aware abreast of the latest news.
The down and dirty bad news is that Java 1.6 isn’t included with Leopard. I might have thought that no one cared, but the fact is that when we offered to answer your questions last week, two of you actually asked what the version of Java included was.
All Steve Jobs quips about nobody using Java aside, it’s still used in quite a few circles. With the Java Cocoa bridge now deprecated and Leopard lacking the latest version, it’s almost as if Apple’s making a concerted effort to get its users to move away from it permanently.
...to get Java developers to move away from Apple permanently.
There's a lot of funny business going on with X11 too (A LOT of the scientific community uses X11 apps). It was optional with Tiger, but a default install with Leopard. Unfortunately the whole X11 Leopard Universe is sick at the moment. Apple changed everything (how it starts, the whole engine), but didn't finish and/or test anything. But they are working on it, so maybe there is hope for Java.
With Leopard and an Intel Mac, I can boot into Windows which supports the latest Java. Yeah!!
Sounds like Apple's telling Java developers that it's time to make the switch to Python.
This makes me look forward to the upgrade even more!