Last week, I sold my iMac in preparation for buying a new 24″ Core 2 Duo model when Leopard came out. Now it is out, sans Java 6. I’ve spent the last few hours looking at what people are saying on places like Javalobby, the JavaPosse Google Group, Apple’s Java mailing lists, etc.. A lot of developers are pretty upset about the lack of Java 6 support, and I have to admit I’m more than a little disappointed. Apple’s lack of support for Java 6 is disheartening, and I have to agree with James Gosling’s observation that “…it really hasn’t been keeping up as a developer’s machine…”.

It is easy to assume that Apple is moving away from supporting Java, and a lot of people have commented that Steve Jobs is basically abandoning Java support on the Mac altogether. This doesn’t appear to be the case, however. One of the few positive notes to come out of Leopard for Java developers is that Java 1.5 support on Leopard appears to be significantly improved, both in terms of the LAF and performance.

I don’t think Apple has abandoned Java, at least not yet. The 1.6 previews that were available at one point (I couldn’t find them available for download anywhere today, however) appeared to be fairly solid. I imagine we’ll see Java 6 supported on Leopard in the near future. The question of supporting Java 7 and beyond on OS X, however, is still up in the air.

The real problem is that they are so tight-lipped about their plans, timelines, etc.. This is the real problem, and it is a kick in the gut for developers who have been championing OS X to their managers. The fact is, a lot of companies are pretty set on Dell boxes running Windows. Getting approval to purchase Apple products is often a difficult battle. Now that Leopard doesn’t have Java 6 and Apple has made no public statements about Java support, our managers have one more piece of ammunition to use against purchasing Apple products for developers. I know a lot of developers trying to “sell” Apple hardware to their managers (and doing Apple a favor) kind of feel like Apple has stabbed them in the back here. It is hard to blame them.

I’ll probably still end up buying my new iMac - it won’t be a machine for heavy development, mostly Ruby and Python. It probably will keep me from buying a MacBook Pro, however, and will make my efforts to get Apple hardware at work just that much harder. The sad thing is, a lot of the ill-will and difficulties it creates for developers would be mitigated if they would be more open about their plans and the timeframe for getting Java 6 support in Leopard.