Does Apple Hate Java?

On October 26, 2007, Apple released Leopard, the latest and greatest version of the excellent operating system, Mac OS X.

Even though I haven't owned a Mac since the 1980s, I've been enjoying reading about Mac OS X online. The temptation to buy a Mac has never been greater, and I was very nearly ready to give in to that temptation .... until I realized, much to my dismay, that Apple hates Java.

You see, these days, I'm mostly a Java developer. Oh sure, I still use C, and dabble with Python, and do a bit of HTML and JavaScript too, but I'm primarily a Java developer.

Java does a very good job with, "Write Once, Run Everywhere." Not perfect, mind you -- but still, a very good job. And, as a Java developer, I thought to myself, "Self, as a Java developer, you could probably switch to a Mac pretty easily, since Apple supports Java!"

Well, Apple does support Java ... poorly. Leopard, for some reason, didn't ship with Java 6. Okay, that alone is a huge disappointment, given that Java 6 has already been out for other operating systems for about a year. But surely Leopard will ship with the latest version of Java 5! Right?

Nope. A lot of rumors, from several reliable sources, have been saying that Java 5 on Leopard is buggy and broken. What the hell, Apple?

Given the army of Java developers out there, you would think Steve Jobs would try to make Mac OS X one of the best development platforms for Java in the world. Unfortunately, he can't even be bothered to ship a decent Java runtime for Mac OS X.

This baffles me. Presumably, a lot of Java developers chose Java over competitors like .NET / C# because they dislike Microsoft (for whatever reason). The battle to win the hearts and minds of those developers is already 1/2 won! Why not go the rest of the distance and make Java on Mac a priority, Apple? You could win the hearts and minds of a lot of Java developers with ease, who would then presumably write software for Mac OS X, which would in turn entice more people to use Macs.

Needless to say, this major stumbling block makes my decision to not buy a Mac an easy one.

Come on, Apple. Get with it.