Java 6 Preview Available for Leopard
Posted by Joseph Nusairat
The long awaited news of Java 6 on Leopard has finally been announced, albeit with little fan fare.
Apple has released the preview version; meaning a final version should be coming soon. While I find this to be great news for those of us who do Java development on the Mac, I find it intriguing by the fact that it makes special use of 64-bit architecture. However, it's that last part that worries me a bit. Apparently you HAVE to have a Core 2 Duo to use Java 6. So that means myself and two of my business partners Mac laptops will not be able to run Java 6. Now generally developers like to stay on the cutting edge at all times. But really, the Core duos are ONLY a year and a half old? That is NOT that old to have to upgrade.
I guess we shall have to see how desperate the Java developers who use the Mac are. There was a slight alternative right now as well. Someone has ported the unix JDK6 to the Mac with almost complete functionality. (the URL of the site escapes me right now but I will post it when I find it)
This past weekend Brian and I were at Codemash and while talking to Neal Ford and Joe O'Brien at one of the sponsors parties, the topic of development tools and tips on the Mac came up. Both Brian and I are relatively new Mac owners. He has the PowerBook, I have the smaller MacBook. Both Neal and Joe have owned Macs for a while, and started rattling off must have utilities. I started frantically scribbling down notes of all the programs they were suggesting and sure enough like any good geek I went back to my hotel room later and googled all of them, downloaded some and started playing with them.