There has been a lot of anger and confusion among Java developers regarding Apple’s decision to deprecate Java on the Mac.
See the ‘official statement’ from Apple:
http://twiturl.de/tmaeeig
Some comments and statements on the web:
InfoQ
http://www.infoq.com/news/2010/10/apple-deprecates-java
Stefan Tilkov’s opinion
http://www.innoq.com/blog/st/2010/10/apple_killing_java.html
Chris Adamson’s blog entry
http://www.subfurther.com/blog/?p=1305
Many people say that Java on the Desktop doesn’t matter and that it doesn’t make a difference if Java is supported on the Mac or not. This is not true for me - it does make a difference (at least on my work machine).
And these are the desktop tools based on Java I currently use ordered by importance:
JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA (http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/)
Others may replace this IDE with Eclipse (I sometimes use Eclipse too) or NetBeans. If IDEA support is dropped from Mac OS X it’s very likely that I’ll leave the Apple platform.
Aqua Data Studio (http://www.aquafold.com)
This has been one of my most important development tools for many years and I use it in almost all of my projects. This is a killer product for me (a Mac OS X killer).
JetBrains RubyMine (http://www.jetbrains.com/ruby/)
See IDEA at the top of this list. You could simply replace this tool with TextMate for Ruby/Rails development but IMHO you’ll miss many errors / refactorings when developping with plain text editors (that means it’s likely you’ll produce less quality code).
Cyberduck (http://www.cyberduck.ch)
Free and versatile FTP, SSH, etc client. Nice but could be replaced without problems.
FreeMind (http://freemind.sf.net)
Free useful mind mapping tool I sometimes use to structure my thoughts. I guess it could be replaced with another tool. Not an OS X killer.
GanttProject (http://www.ganttproject.biz/)
Free project management and planning tool. Importance is comparable to FreeMind.
Misc tools, plugins and development libraries
I’d miss small tools like the Groovy / Grails console (but I’m sure they could be replaced with native variants). Java developers would lose the ability to develop cross platform Swing applications on the Mac and use development libraries like Griffon.
Cross platform text editors like jEdit or the JRuby based RedCar could be replaced by native text editors but sometimes it’s nice to have the same tools on different platforms.
Some tools are not necessary at all, but very nice to have (like JDiskReport).
Even Apple fanboys (https://mobilemacs.de/2010/10/mm053-wir-sind-alle-chuck-norris.html) have mentioned that there would be a problem creating online tax reports in Germany (‘Elster’) because they require Java.
Conclusion
For me, Java is still very important and it seamlessly supports all platforms I develop on / deploy to. I even sometimes use the JVM for (J)Ruby programs because plain Ruby is not as easy to deploy on different platforms without installing system level drivers or native libraries. And don’t forget about the speed and reliability of the JVM.
The reason I use several Macs today is that I visited the JAX (Java) conference in 2004 where many speakers used Apple hardware.
At my employer I was the first employee using a Mac for work and today we have several users with Apple gear.
I wish there was a better platform for enterprise grade development but I still haven’t found one.
And what about Objective-C / XCode? I have used a better native tool in the 1990’s - it was called ‘Borland Delphi’. The Apple development language and tools are just a bad joke compared to modern IDEs like IDEA or Visual Studio.
And what I really don’t like is Apple’s new attitude. IMHO it’s OK to drop Flash/Java on the iPhone because they’re too heavy technologies, but I think Apple’s ‘new style’ is very arrogant and short-sighted. They could have talked to Oracle and Adobe before making public announcements.
If Apple stops supporting Java desktop applications my relationship with Apple will have to end and I’ll return to my old love Linux.
