---------- Original message ---------- Subject: Re: Java 1.6 Date: Monday, 31. October 2011 From: John Ruschmeyer <jrusc...@gmail.com> To: g3-5-list@googlegroups.com > > "Someone correct me, but I believe Java becomes "Intel only" at some > > point ..."
“At some point” is nicely put. It started while 10.5 was the recent version, and Apple refused to put some work into making the Intel-only Java 6 available for the PowerPC users as well. But, let's be fair. Apple donated all the Apple/Mac OS X-specific stuff to the open source community, so they *can* (but: will they?) make a PowerPC build for themselves. Thank you. > > yeah it does, not right considering they for years talked of it as though > > it was completely platform independent, it happened recently. I ran in to > > this same problem recently wanting the latest and greatest on my ppc > > mac........ derp apparently not. > > IIRC, Apple required a minimum of 10.5.x and a 64-bit system for Java 6. > This meant that the G5 was the only PPC to get Java 6. Nope. 64-Bit and Intel. PPC is completely out of the loop… > I believe that there is/was some community attempt to port Java 6 based on > OpenJDK to Mac OS X. See http://landonf.bikemonkey.org/code/macosx/ There seems to be very little interest to port Java on the Mac. Apple stopped it with Java 1.6 aka Java 6. The last Apple provided for the PowerPC is 1.5. It has nothing to do with 32-Bit or 64-Bit, it's just the architecture (ppc, x86, arm, sparc, …), and in particular: the OS integration. There need to be some hooks for Mac OS X, that need porting, which needs time and efforts. Developers focus on the “here and now”, which is Intel-only, and not PowerPC. What I did find, although BETA, so use with caution: SoyLatte, which is basically also focused on Java 6/7 for Mac OS X 10.4/10.5 on Intel, has a build of OpenJDK 7 (1.7?) for the PowerPC too: http://landonf.bikemonkey.org/static/soylatte/ I never tried it. Keep in mind, that it's very old (2009). There must be dozens of open security holes, that may be actively exploited out in the open & wide internet. And, we don't know if Java 7 is 100% Java 6 compatible (at least in this early Beta state). I recommend to *not* *use* *it*, when your machine is connected and used with the internet! It's hard to control which program uses it once installed. On the other hand, if you need to run a Java program that you can trust to be non-malware (so it won't “try anything”…), there won't be a problem with this Beta version of Java, except that it may be unstable and/or incomplete. Cheers, Andreas aka Mac User #330250 -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
