Bug fixes for Java on OS X

Shaon published 26 Sep 2008, 08:18 in apple - 318 views

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Everyone knows that Macs are safer than Windows because almost all malicious software targets Windows. But every rule has exceptions, and in this case, the exception has been Java.

Java is unusual in that any company can write a Java runtime environment for any operating system. Microsoft, at one point provided one for Windows, but those days are long gone. ThinkPad laptop computers still come with a Java runtime developed by IBM. Netscape used to ship their own Java runtime as part of the Navigator web browser. Today, most Windows users get their Java runtime from Sun, the company that originally developed the language.

For whatever reason, Sun does not provide a Java runtime for Macs, instead this is left to Apple.* And, Apple has a history of being slow to fix bugs in Java, trailing Sun by many months.

All this is background to the fact that Apple just released a large number of bug fixes for Java on Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) and OS X 10.4 (Tiger).

Mac users can go to my www.javatester.org website to see the version of Java being used by their web browser. Anyone using multiple web browsers needs to check the Java version in each browser separately.

Apple supports three versions/editions/families of Java.

--The oldest family is 1.4.2 and the latest version there is now 1.4.2_18 (the prior buggy version was 1.4.2_16).

--Next is the 1.5.0 family where the latest go-round is 1.5.0_16 (the prior buggy version was 1.5.0_13).

--The latest and greatest version of Java for Macs is 1.6.0 and the latest version here is 1.6.0_07 (the prior buggy version was 1.6.0_05).

*Sun points users to developer.apple.com/java/ a page that hasn't been updated to reflect the latest releases.
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Tags: Apple, Bug Fixes, Java, Mac OS X, Java Runtime Environment

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