So Apple have announced that they will be contributing large swaths of code to the OpenJDK project and that from Java 7 onwards, Java will be a separate download from Oracle, much like Flash is now a separate download from Adobe. This really shouldn’t be unexpected for anyone who was paying attention to what was going on rather than just running around thinking the sky was falling.

This is fantastic news for Java developers of all types. Mac Java developers have been asking for Java to be separated from the OS for many, many years so that multiple versions of Java are more manageable and especially to decouple Java releases from the OS release timeline.

Since the main JVM for OS X will now be open source, intrepid developers can dive in and fix issues they run into or at least dig into the code to understand it better and find work-arounds they can use. Apple has historically been quite innovative with it’s JVM port as well, bringing some great stuff to the JVM on OS X first1. It should now be easier to share those innovations across platforms which is great for all Java users.

It’s also nice to know that Java 6 will continue to be bundled with the OS in OS X 10.7 Lion. That gives a nice ramp-up for Apple and developers to transition to an optionally installed JVM and ensure things work smoothly either by applications bundling a JVM with the app or the installer or through auto-install methods for applets and webstart etc.

Finally, this should mean that JDK7 development on Mac will be done in the open, giving developers earlier and far greater access to try it out and report any issues back.

Seems like a huge win all round to me.

1 – for example the ability to share the core classes between JVM instances, but also a lot of stuff in how swing works and integrates with the OS ↩

James Turner gives a week in review and mentions the deprecated Java on OS X issue1. One thing to correct:

Deprecation basically means that neither package will be delivered as part of the installation DVDs, and updates will not come via the Apple update mechanisms. It doesn't mean they won't be available anymore, it just means you'll have to download them directly from Oracle and Adobe.

Firstly, there’s nothing to suggest that Java won’t come from Apple but not be part of the standard OS X package.

Secondly, just because something isn’t on the OS X install DVD doesn’t mean it’s not updated via Software Update. Aperture for example is a separately purchased product but updates come through Apple Software Update automatically. On Lion, software update is likely to open up further since it’s the obvious conduit to deliver updates for apps on the Mac App Store.

Of course, if the JVM winds up coming from Oracle, I wouldn’t hold your breath for updates via Software Update.

1 – I’m not sure how deprecated Java counts as lost in the hubbub of Back to the Mac, from where I’m sitting it looks a lot like the other way around but anyway. ↩

It’s interesting to see how many people are jumping to conclusions around the very carefully worded deprecation notice for Java in OS X. Read it carefully and pay careful attention to what it actually says:

As of the release of Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 3, the Java runtime ported by Apple and that ships with Mac OS X is deprecated. Developers should not rely on the Apple-supplied Java runtime being present in future versions of Mac OS X.

Most notably the note only refers to the Apple ported JVM that ships with OS X. This leaves the door open for an Apple ported JVM that ships as a separate download and for a non-Apple JVM that ships with OS X.

If you can drown out all the screaming and gnashing of teeth and pay attention to the Apple Java-Dev list you’d also notice:

1. A huge amount of effort went into this release, especially setting things up to support multiple JVMs from multiple vendors. In the past, there was only one JVM available on an OS X install, it was upgraded with the OS and provided by Apple1.
2. Even after this release, the Apple engineers who post to the list are still talking about their long term plans for the JVM (one example).

No one outside of Apple knows for sure what the future of Java on OS X is, and those inside who do know aren’t allowed to talk, but given the currently available evidence it seems at least as likely that Apple will continue to provide a JVM but as a separate download (or possibly just an optional install) as it is that they’ll abandon Java entirely.

Yes, there is a chance that Apple will just walk away from Java and leave a gaping void, but I don’t see indications that it’s a corporate strategy of Apple. Remember that Apple isn’t a company that sends a lot of mixed messages. They can turn a marketing message on a dime and they don’t pull punches. They’re also small enough and tightly managed enough that it’s rare for one part of the company to be off doing something that’s not inline with the company direction. If people are still building improvements to Java on OS X rather than moving to maintenance mode, that’s a strong signal that there is a future of some kind.

The real problem here is the same one that always happens with Apple – they’re not communicating their plans so developers can plan accordingly and not panic. But if you haven’t learnt to roll with the punches that approach delivers, you’re not a real Mac developer.

1 – A situation which caused most of the complaints on the java-dev list.↩

Stephen O’Grady:

Remember that, at its core, the iPhone offers not a whole lot more than a phone, browser, camera, iPod and GPS. Which, ok, is kind of impressive. But not truly differentiating, Apple’s acknowledged strength in user experiences aside. As good and smart as Apple is at design – and they are very, very good – they’re never going to be as good and smart as everyone else. We see this in the enterprise world frequently, where vendors that foster an ecosystem succeed and those that don’t, well, don’t. But we haven’t seen too many examples of this play out in the consumer world yet, which is one of the reasons the iPhone is such an interesting platform. With the App Store, Apple’s attempting to cement its role with a community play.

I find it interesting that everyone holds up the App Store as the key reason for the iPhone being successful – the key differentiating factor. Has everyone forgotten that the iPhone originally launched with no developer SDK at all and how well did that go? That’s right, it was a massive success.

The iPhone is not succeeding purely because of the App Store, in fact it could just as easily be the opposite – the App Store is succeeding because the iPhone is so popular. There’s nothing simple about developing for the iPhone – you have to learn Objective-C and Cocoa Touch, you have to pay to get involved at all and you don’t know if you’ll be allowed to ship your app until after you finish it and submit it to Apple. So why do people do it? Because there are a huge number of iPhone users out there.

In the short time the iPhone has been out, people have simply forgotten how revolutionary the phone and Apple software that comes with it actually is. The third party apps are just very tasty icing on top.

Antonio Cangiano:

In theory I could have been disappointed. After all, my visit didn’t fix the problem at hand, my expensive laptop seemed to be good as a door stopper, and repairing this thing could potentially be less advantageous than just buying a newer unit. Yet, as I arrived home, I told my wife that my next laptop would definitely be an Apple.

The reason for this is that I saw a genuine effort to help me out, an unheard level of care for the customer and an willingness to do what’s right, even if it costs the company some money. The whole experience was very positive and I felt that the premium cost of Apple’s products is easily justified by this kind of support.

The way you support your clients is a key part of any products and services your company provides. No matter how much you focus on quality, things will go wrong sometimes and your clients will have problems. Ironically, that’s your biggest chance to make them a fan for live because while people expect products to work all the time, they don’t expect support experiences to be much good. If you provide a great support experience, it surprises them and makes them notice.

Two examples I’ve had recently really confirm that.  The first was with one of Ephox’s clients who were experiencing a lot of crashes. It had reached the point where the authors were unable to do any work and the content migration had pretty much completely stopped – their project timeline was dead in the water. Thankfully, they were extremely patient and friendly people so even in such a stressful time were really good to work with and I made sure I dropped everything and worked whatever hours were required to solve their problems. Most importantly though, I gave them copious status updates to make sure they knew exactly what was going on and give them the information that their bosses were going to ask for. We’ve solved the major issues and are still working to clean up some more minor issues, but they’ve already offered to give us a reference.

The second case was with a Freecom Tough Drive I bought. It’s meant to be powered off the USB bus, but PowerBook G4s don’t supply enough power that way so the one I bought for my wife has sat in the drawer for quite a while. Recently though our regular backup drive failed so I really needed to get it working. Turns out they’ll ship you a free power adapter if you need it, you just have to email them. I did, and got a response within about 30 minutes to say the adapter would be in the mail asap. Needless to say, I’m seriously impressed and will be sticking with Freecom for any portable hard drives I need in the future.

It’s easy to think of support as a cost centre for your business and something that should be outsourced, but the reality is that it’s one of the best opportunities for impressing your clients, building great word of mouth and perhaps most importantly, getting real world feedback on your products so you can make them better in the future.