Consumer version of Java SE 7 Mac, including the JRE, available later in 2012

Apr 27, 2012 11:54 GMT  ·  By

Oracle has announced plans to support Mac OS X with the release of Java SE 7 Update 4 and JavaFX 2.1 for developers. Apple stopped developing its Java updates almost two years ago, as the company was always one step behind the current version available on all other platforms.

“Oracle today announced the availability of Java Platform, Standard Edition 7 Update 4 (Java SE 7 Update 4) and JavaFX 2.1,” said the company.

The release marks the company’s first delivery of the Java Development Kit (JDK) and JavaFX Software Development Kit (SDK) for Macintosh, Oracle said.

For developers, the Oracle’s JDK is immediately available as a free download with the JavaFX SDK for Mac OS X included from the Oracle Technology Network (OTN).

Oracle promised that a consumer version of Java SE 7, including the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) for Mac OS X, would be available later this year.

Oracle’s announcement continues with details on Java SE 7 Update 4 which includes the next-generation Garbage Collection algorithm, Garbage First (G1).

Oracle says the G1 “has been eagerly anticipated by the Java developer community. G1 provides predictable garbage collection even for very large applications.”

The software company pledges to continue to merge the Oracle Java HotSpot JVM and the Oracle JRockit JVM into a converged product “that leverages the best features of each of these leading virtual machines.”

“Java SE7 Update 4 contains numerous performance enhancements to the JVM, which can also deliver a performance boost to Oracle Fusion Middleware products,” Oracle adds.

“With the release of Java SE 7 Update 4, all of the performance enhancements available in Oracle JRockit have been merged into Oracle Java HotSpot and OpenJDK, the open source Java SE implementation.”

According to the company, the OpenJDK Community continues to host the development of the prototype reference implementation of Java SE 8 (Java SE 7 on Mac OS X and JDK 8).

Oracle also announced starting the OpenJFX project as part of its plan to open source the JavaFX platform.

Download JDK 7 Update 4 (Free)