Apple Is Phasing Out Flash, Java from Its Macs

Those who’ve had some hands-on with Apple’s new MacBook Air can confirm that, although the system ships with the latest version of Snow Leopard pre-installed, it lacks the Flash Player plugin. It is also being reported that Apple is ceasing future development of their version of Java for the Mac.

Following a few tests with the new laptop, Engadget reveals that the new MacBook Air does not ship with Flash pre-installed. Users can, nonetheless, go ahead and download the plug-in manually, from Adobe’s web site.

For those who are reading this on their brand new Flash-less MacBook Air, here’s a handy link to get you all set up to use the likes of YouTube.

Download Adobe Flash Player for Mac OS X (Free)

In related news, Apple is now taking the first steps towards discontinuing Java runtime from Mac OS X.

As simple as it sounds, Apple updated its developer documentation library on Thursday to include a statement that says they will not be supporting Java for Mac OS X in the future.

Java Deprecation

As of the release of Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 3, the Java runtime ported by Apple and that ships with Mac OS X is deprecated. Developers should not rely on the Apple-supplied Java runtime being present in future versions of Mac OS X.

The Java runtime shipping in Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, and Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, will continue to be supported and maintained through the standard support cycles of those products.

A report by MacRumors claims to have a comment from Steve Jobs himself, on Apple’s move to phase out Java.

As the story goes, a Java developer from Portico Systems was concerned about the matter, and decided to email Steve Jobs asking about Apple's future plans for the programming language in platform on Mac OS X.

According to this person, Steve Jobs’ reply was:

“Sun (now Oracle) supplies Java for all other platforms. They have their own release schedules, which are almost always different than ours, so the Java we ship is always a version behind. This may not be the best way to do it.”