They seem to have stepped it up - the jdk 5 was miserably late. At least 6 was in its developer preview fairly early. I think one of the issues is that once they go for the platform sdk, they go all the way - they typically say that *this* is *the* jvm that will be used by the system or, well, the heavily suggested one at least. They look like they're waiting for Leopard for its release, but then they have the issue of *what about Tiger* problem again that they had with Panther. I hope they realize the developer community that is using their platform and don't turn their back on it. I am in the Salt Lake City, Utah area and the statistics seem similar to other areas in the Utah Java Users Group - 1/4 macs just guessing. It would be nice to have some kind of roadmap though, despite their swearing to secrecy. It's fun and all, but roadmaps can be nice occasionally, for say, planning things.

Well, I'm one of those that started using Java 6 for development of a specific project and I have indeed come up with an issue with the preview release that does not allow me to continue my project in OSX.

Of course I can't disclose anything else, but it does affect me, hence my vote.

I voted "It would be, if JDK 6 were available on OS X" even though my answer should be "yes, if someone else besides Apple developed JDK on Mac". What bothers me is the proprietory attitude and NDA Apple enforces to its Java developers.

I can get a preview release of Java 6, but I don't care. It's as good a development platform (plus or minus) as Windows or Linux, but the lack of Java 6 for the end user makes Java 6 useless as a cross-platform solution.

Maybe I'm missing something. I think the Mac is a great platform for Java development. And JDK 6 is available right now, as a developer preview, from the Apple Developer Connection download site. I use it and haven't seen any issues with it. When I was at the JavaOne conference, I took my laptop, which is a MacBook Pro 15". By my cursory inspection, I think that about 1 out of every 4 laptops there was a Mac. When you talk about presenters -- the people teaching the sessions -- the number went to about 1 in 2. And I think this trend will accelerate, as viruses get more pervasive in the Windows environment and performance gets more dragged down by the virus checkers that Windows must have to even continue running. When you use a Mac, it just works, and it works well.

All you need is an X Server and you're away. That's the standard reasoning, isn't it?

I voted "no", the point is not that JDK6 is available. I mean what will be with the next release? Apple doesn't seem to so serious about Java as they say. The problem will be the same with JDK7 or JDK8. They are behind and a development platform needs to be ahead.

...for a platform to be good? I don't know to many developers that create projects / products that rely on a specific feature set of a JDK. Personally, I look at 6 and can't see one compelling reason / feature to move from 5. I tried the *performance* angle only to find disappointment...