Whatever
Applying the simplest analysis - it was in the ADC builds. It was pulled just before the GM. QED - it's coming but it missed the cutoff date for the release.
Quite why Apple can't simply be upfront about that I don't know - it's the iPhone SDK all over again - at no point did they say one wasn't coming, at no point did they say one was coming, instead leaving people to interpret the statements from Steve Jobs for clues.
More seriously - and no one is commenting here - there are reports that Java 5 is broken on Leopard, so I'd wager their Java developers have been put onto fixing that first, before completing Java 6.
Making an educated guess after reading the Ars review, and the nature of the problems people are reporting, it probably relates to the changes in the way the UI is being rendered on Leopard (which given the way Apple's Java implentation uses native widgets where possible will have affected Java).
(The version of Ruby, on the other hand, exists as a bridge on top of Cocoa, so presumably doesn't have the same issues, as the underlying changes are abstracted by the Cocoa layer).
>Why can't people just install Java 1.6 as released for BSD, or Linux?
>Yes, it would need a recompile, but it ought to work. Isn't that the point of Posix?
I'd imagine you'd also have to run the UI within X11 (if there is a GUI version of Java that runs on standard X?).
As I understand it, the Linux version of Java uses GTK or a similar UI library that hasn't been ported to OS X.
To reply to some criticisms (therefore making me an irrational fanboy)
>lol the way Mac users go on and on about how stable their OS is, how full of features and how it never crashes amazes me.
Well, generally speaking, it IS a lot more stable. Generally speaking, it doesn't crash.
If that amazes you, then you're making the erroneous presumption that most OS crash like Windows/Classic MacOS (historically) did. The instability of microcomputer OS was more of an aberation from the norm than the norm.
(Yes, every OS I've used has had bugs and quirks).
I think what you actually mean is 'I've been waiting to feel this moment of schadenfreude for some time'.
What is evident is that Apple's quality control has really gone downhill this year - a real feeling that shipping dates are taking priority over quality.
It turns out the BSOD on the upgrade is most likely caused by a Logitech installed kernel hack, but it's not as if Logitech mice are actually uncommon (although maybe inside Apple's test facilities?).
>In Microsoft's world, that's called a "Service Pack" and it automatically installs overnight. For free
Not quite. Service packs are largely funded by the huge number of corporate annual licences - i.e. they are an expected part of what we pay for.
Apple's revenue model is quite different. (It's more like giving Visual Studio away for free but charging users for new versions of .NET).
There's also a lot of change under the hood - go read the Ars review for detail.
>Does the average Mac user even know what a compiler is?
Hoho indeed. Compared to the average Windows user, quite possibly.
I'm basing that on the smaller number of Mac users, full stop, and the proportionally large number at developer conferences, suggesting that a higher percentage of Mac users are developers - although this percentage is obviously declining as the Mac
crawls out from it's 'design' niche into becoming a popular consumer machine.
Which is why this is an issue - their developer communications strategy is a joke, as is their enterprise marketing. As the focus swings towards the consumer side of the business, these communities need reassurance they are not being abandoned - and we expect to be treated in a more grown-up manner than removing features with no explanation and deleting comments.
We can handle things missing their delivery date (software developers are generally more understanding than consumers in that respect because most of us have done it).
>you're too stupid to use GNU/Linux
And this one just made me smile . . half the time it's supposed to be so easy to use, anyone can. The rest of the time, using Linux is somehow a sign of intelligence. (Just like reading Book A or listening to Band X is somehow a sign of intelligence). Clue - you are not what you install.