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Do You Want Apple to Share Their JDK Source? Sign The Petition

10.25.2010
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A petition has been created to encourage Apple to contribute their source for Java on the Mac to the OpenJDK project. This would be an excellent resolution, as it gives the Open JDK project a kickstart in targetting Mac OSX, rather than having to start from scratch. The introduction to the petition states

Apple has recently announced that it would prefer if someone else were to continue the development of the JDK for Mac OS X. As Apple's own JDK is mature and well-integrated, we would love to see Apple contributing the source code of the existing JDK for Mac OS X to the OpenJDK BSD Port project (http://openjdk.java.net/projects/bsd-port).

 At the time of writing, the petition had 1172 supporters. So if you're concerned, and believe this is the best way forward, show your support.

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Comments

Fabrizio Giudici replied on Mon, 2010/10/25 - 4:03am

Frankly I don't think that anybody in Apple will ever consider a petition. Nevertheless, I've signed it, and I invite others to do, since it doesn't cost anything to us anyway, and it's a way to measure the actual interest in Java on Mac OS X. It could be useful to push other players than Apple.

Vincent DABURON replied on Mon, 2010/10/25 - 4:29am

Hi,
I remember that historically JavaLobby had lobbied to have a Java environment on Windows (after Sun's lawsuits against Microsoft). In the same spirit , I signed the petition for a JVM uptodate in MacOS environment.
Vincent

Artur Biesiadowski replied on Mon, 2010/10/25 - 7:01am

Java is really happening in two places - *nix server side and windows client side. Windows client side is mostly only because of the internal company software deployments. I see MacOS java being mostly used by developers, who target linux/unix server side or windows client side anyway, they just want to have nice looking icons on their desktop and/or prefer white mouses.

Does anybody here actually earn their money by developing java applications which are RUN on the Mac? No, IDEA, Eclipse and Netbeans do not count.

Before people will jump on me, I know there are more things in Mac then white mouses and nice icons, but my point stands - do you really need Mac support for production use, or just your "I like to develop on Mac" use? Would you postpone your next favorite JDK feature (be it lambdas, fork-join framework, invokedynamic, whatever), by, let's say, two months, to get support for java on Mac from Oracle? Two weeks? One year?

Maybe somebody can create the poll "I agree to delay each release of JDK by N weeks if you support Mac" and we will see how big the N really is... and remember, other option is not "Not having java on Mac", it is just going into situation like linux had in the past with Blackdown releases. In fact, even better, given that OpenJDK is a lot more open than JDK 1.1 was.

Jacek Furmankiewicz replied on Mon, 2010/10/25 - 9:24am

I signed too, but I can't say I am holding my breath for Apple sharing their code. They are even more closed source obsessed than Microsoft (and that's saying a lot). It is becoming a horribly proprietary closed platform across their whole product line.

Michael Urban replied on Mon, 2010/10/25 - 12:12pm

Unfortunately, the parts of the Apple JVM that are most needed are the parts that Apple is least likely to turn over. The main thing that SoyLatte needs is the graphics / AWT / Swing code for the Apple JVM if they are going to make it a reasonable platform for developing OS X desktop apps. But given that Apple has many undocumented APIs when it comes to drawing and graphics that they consider to be trade secrets, it's unlikely Apple will turn over this code.

Fabrizio Giudici replied on Mon, 2010/10/25 - 2:21pm in response to: Michael Urban

Unfortunately, Michael has got some points. The existence and relevance of those undocumented UI API have been referred a few days ago by Gosling. I think that we should have rather to get a better integration with the JDK in another way, even though is not (initially) optimal. The important thing is to avoid a gap that is too long when Lion comes out. A long gap will make many developers migrate to other technologies, decrease the offer to users, and in the end the situation will get beyond the recovery point. Given that, I won't die if it happens. As Jacek says, Apple has gotten too close for my tastes and if Mac OS X disappears from the list of Java targets, I'll have one less o.s. to run on my laptop.

J Szy replied on Tue, 2010/10/26 - 2:36am in response to: Jacek Furmankiewicz

They are even more closed source obsessed than Microsoft (and that's saying a lot).

Yeah, right. That's why they publish their kernel as open source, they are developing WebKit, LLVM, CUPS...

It is becoming a horribly proprietary closed platform across their whole product line.

What should they opensource more? Their UI code maybe?

G Ralph Kuntz, Md replied on Thu, 2010/10/28 - 9:12am in response to: Artur Biesiadowski

"Does anybody here actually earn their money by developing java applications which are RUN on the Mac?" Yes. I do.

James Jamesson replied on Mon, 2010/11/01 - 1:40am

Instead of flagging my post as spam, get your server to respond faster. I clicked save and it didnt do anything, clicked again it now says I was flagged for spam. ffs. Wont write comment here again.

Jessie Mear replied on Wed, 2011/09/07 - 6:41am

A petition has appeared online, calling for Apple to contribute the source code of the existing JDK for Mac OS X to the OpenJDK BSD Port project. java programmers

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