A few days ago whilst I was casually surfing around the internet, I found a somewhat interesting news in the world of IT. Apple announced that its MAC OS would not have pre-installed JAVA in its system anymore. As being interested in Oracle and JAVA which Larry Ellison bought from Sun Microsystem, this news has caught my attention.
After procrastinating for the past couple of days, I have decided to do something productive for myself, so I've just decided to figure out what has happened between Oracle and Apple over JAVA.
In my terribly superficial research on this matter, I have check out articles and user comments from stuff.co.nz and Engadget.com. I have to say... that the comment part was the most interesting to read. (Korean internet communities are usually filled with Korean f-words and all that sort of swearing which makes me realise every time how creative Korean people are in terms of new-f-word-creation. And well I found people who use English are as much creative!)
What exactly happened?
Basically, Java is the most popular and widely-used programming language, and its virtual machine is a revolutionary platform that increases programmers' efficiency tremendously. It was originally designed by James Gosling (if I spelt his name correctly) and it has been FREE! (still it is? i think so) Anyway, it once belonged to Sun Microsystems and now to Oracle. (some say Larry Ellison is really proud of its purchase)
Unlike Microsoft which has decided long ago not to include pre-installed Java plugin in its Windows OS, Apple has, by making its own version of JAVA using the code Oracle develops. This means that when Oracle releases a patch to update Java, Apple needs to do something to adjust Oracle's patch to its version of Java. A comment in Engadget.com said it was the reason why Java on Mac OS X was notorious for many security holes.
This explains Apple's decision on Java. Obviously users would now have to go to Oracle's website to download and update their java plugin, but it would only take 5-10 mins. Not a big deal. But by this move, Apple would be able to deal with its Java security problem. I think I can safely say that... this Apple's decision does not mean that Apple is taking a further distance from Oracle, whatsoever.
Even though Engadget.com's article about this was implying that the relationship between Oracle and Apple has got worse, (http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/18/apple-removes-java-from-osx/) actually it's not... And! according to Stuff.co.nz (http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/7852145/Apple-drops-Java-after-security-warnings) Apple and Oracle agreed on this move two years ago. And its article sounds like MAC OS X without pre-installed Java doesn't mean any conflicts between Apple and Oracle.
So... guess it's kind of a wise move to deal with security issues..
let me know how you think.
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