It's great that apple includes java built into os x, but what's stopping them from making java 5 standard? I want to be able to expect that end-users will have it already! Any ideas when this will happen?
I would have thought that current versions of 10.4 include it by now, and that systems delievered with 10.4 pre-installed now also have it. Isn't that the case?
Nope. I checked out the java-dev mailing list hosted by developer.apple.com, and I guess a lot of them still think that java 5 isn't ready for primetime on the mac: certain things won't compile when they should, or vice versa. I *think* that's the situation. But java 5 is definitely still a manual-download only.
Indeed, Java 5.0 certainly has the appearance of being "stalled" with Apple, which makes me uneasy because it gives the impression that Java is a very low priority to them. I wish they would at least communicate something.
"We're kind of on the level of crossword puzzle writers... And no one ever goes to them and gives them an award." ~Joe Strummer sscce.org
If you register (free) at connect.apple.com you can find a bit of evidence of new Java activity in the Downloads section. I guess I can't comment any more than that, per the site policies.