Apple and Oracle Kick Off OpenJDK Project for Mac OS X

Oracle and Apple have announced the OpenJDK project for creating a Java SE 7 implementation on Mac OS X. Under the terms of the agreement, Apple will contribute most of the key components, tools and technology, including a 32-bit and 64-bit HotSpot-based Java virtual machine, class libraries, a networking stack and the foundation for a new graphical client.

The two companies said that OpenJDK will make Apple’s Java technology available to open source developers so they can access and contribute to the effort.

“We are excited to welcome Apple as a significant contributor in the growing OpenJDK community,” said Hasan Rizvi, Oracle’s senior vice president of Development. “The availability of Java on Mac OS X plays a key role in the cross-platform promise of the Java platform.”

“The Java developer community can rest assured that the leading edge Java environment will continue to be available on Mac OS X in the future,” Rizvi added. “Combined with last month’s announcement of IBM joining the OpenJDK, the project now has the backing of three of the biggest names in software.”

“We’re delighted to be working with Oracle to insure that there continues to be a great version of Java on the Mac,” said Bertrand Serlet, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “The best way for our users to always have the most up to date and secure version of Java will be to get it directly from Oracle.”

According to the official report, Java SE 6 will continue to be available from Apple for Mac OS X Snow Leopard, as well as for the upcoming release of Mac OS X Lion.

Starting with Java SE 7, all versions of Java for Mac OS X will be available from Oracle, Apple said.

A general purpose software development platform, Java is specifically designed to be open and to enable application developers to “write once, run anywhere.” Mostly used in business software, the Java platform is also often utilized for web and mobile applications.