Java is dead! Long live Java?

[update July 2018]

This post is very outdated, but for some reason it still seems to attract a lot of readers. So here is the update:

Some applications still require Java 1.6 for the Mac. Apple still offers a Java 1.6 package that, at the time of this writing, works from Lion to High Sierra:

"Download Java for OS X 2017-001" (this is a link to the support article where you'll find the download link).

The best pro-applications for translators are still mostly Java applications*. OmegaT 3.6 requires at least Java 1.6 and OmegaT 4.1 requires Java 1.8. Unless your Mac is really old, you have access to Java 1.8 directly from Oracle, since, as described below, Apple has stopped offering direct Java downloads.

Soylatte does not exist anymore. Now everything is officially released by Oracle. If you need Java downloads, check here. Do not install Java 9 or 10 right now unless you know what you're doing.

Et voilà !

* Maxprograms has started working on a new multiplatform technology for its latest TMXEditor program: Javascript in the browser. Not free software but better than the Heartsome's defunct TMXEditor (buggy when running with recent versions of Java) and OkapiFramework's Olifant that works fine as a .Net application when run from Windows (in VirtualBox for ex.) but has not been updated for years in its Java incarnation...

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Apple just released a new update for Java 1.6 (both for OSX 10.6 and OSX 10.5, available from Software Update), pretty much the same day Steve Jobs introduce us to a few features of the upcoming version of OSX, 10.7 aka Lion.

The theme of the presentation was "Back to the Mac". Triple layered meaning...

1. Back to the Mac after spending so much time and energy on iOS and mobile devices
   
2. Software improvements to OSX directly coming from the iOS experience
   
3. Hardware improvements to the MacBook with the new incarnation of the MacBook Air, inheriting a lot of cool technology from the iPad.
   

The presentation is available directly from Apple's page. Skip the iLife stuff and directly go to minute 53' to see the OSX part. The App Store and Mission Control parts are really interesting.

Then, in my inbox, came the Java update. After a good news, a bad one (well, hopefully only half bad). 

Quoting Apple: As of the release of Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 3, the version of Java that is ported by Apple, and that ships with Mac OS X, is deprecated.

The full release note is here: Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 3 and 10.5 Update 8 Release Notes

Shocking news.

For translators on the Mac, Java applications are the key to freedom from Windows, even though a lot of "switchers" use the Mac mostly to provide their Windows environment with a stable virtual foundation... On the top of my mind, here are the mainstream applications that depend on Java and are vital for translators who do not rely on Windows:

• Cafetrans
  
• Okapi Framework
  
• OmegaT
  
• Swordfish
  
• Wordfast Pro
  

If you read between the lines of the release note though, you can see that what is deprecated is no Java on the Mac in general, but "the version of Java that is ported by Apple, and that ships with Mac OS X".

With the recent acquisition of Sun by Oracle (Oracle makes massive use of Java), the opening of the JDK source by Sun a few years ago and the currently existing efforts to port that OpenJDK to the Mac, one can also see that move as a way for Apple to say that Mac users will not be left without Java on the Mac, because either Oracle or the OpenJDK community will eventually deliver something that Java users on Mac can still use to run their favorite applications.

In any case, it will eventually be possible to install a foreign (compatible) JRE on Mac that runs all our applications. I've tried a few days ago with Soylatte but I was not able to fully run OmegaT in it, and the windowing system was X11 (with all its UI glitches).

Still, as was mentioned today on the Java-dev list hosted by Apple, it is very unlikely that Apple will just remove Java from OSX. Java is big in education and multiplatform development and Apple has 20% of the PC share in the US as of today (cf the very first part of today's presentation). So Apple is probably thinking of something else.

In any case, right now I don't think Mac users of Java apps have anything to fear. They can keep their Snow Leopard Mac with the latest supported Java and don't have to upgrade to anything. We have about 8 months before Lion's release, hopefully Java we'll be there too in one form or another.

And apologies for the 10 months long blank on this blog...

(updated on 10/22)

New update (10/22): Steve Jobs hints at a different approach, via Hacker News: "Sun (now Oracle) supplies Java for all other platforms. They have their own release schedules, which are almost always different than ours, so the Java we ship is always a version behind. This may not be the best way to do it"

OSX + Windows hybrid systems

Apple has made it very easy for Windows people to "switch" to the Mac with its adoption of Intel CPUs a few years ago.

What people do when they switch though is not only buy a Mac because it's also a PC, they dump their Windows habits altogether and start computing on the Mac side only.

That's good for most of what computing is about nowadays: write a document, browse the web, exchange mails, listen to music, manage pictures and edit a little bit of video.

Now, for professionals, leaving Windows altogether is a totally different issue. The first problem is of course the fact that some of the applications they use may not have equivalents on the Mac side. We are all aware that neither Trados nor MemoQ come with a Mac version...

The other problem is that even if you're willing to dump your Windows software, you may have to pay new licensing fees for something equivalent on the Mac side... The new software may be better integrated to the Mac ecology, but since you're still used to your Windows ways, it may take some time before you manage to be as productive with your new environment...

On the positive side, using Windows inside Mac with a virtualization software is doubleplusgood because:
1) Windows is less likely to infect your whole system since it runs in a closed box
2) It is also less likely to be an annoyance because when there is a problem, it is always possible to go back to a previous "snapshot" of its state.

There, you have tamed the Windows beast by putting it in a Mac box...

But working in such a hybrid environment comes with its set of problems: keyboard shortcuts that are not similar in Windows and Mac, technology that works better in "straight" environments (printing, back up etc)...

This is not to say that most of the existing virtualization packages have not solved most of those issues, but rather that you are bound to find glitches sometimes. Et voilà ! If you belong to the hybrid category of professionals who want to get a Mac but can't leave Windows right away then Karin Adamczyk's list is for you !

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/MacSwitch/

The list is a place where a number of "people who have there before" will explain to you all the subtleties of using your Windows environment on your Mac. Karin's experience has proved very useful on other lists and I'm sure you'll find the place comfortable.