Thomas Much's Weblog

finally { apple.releases( java6ForMacOSX ); }

Only one and a half years after Sun released Java SE 6 for Windows, Linux and Solaris, Apple released the Mac OS X version (called Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 1) this Tuesday. Phew. Thanks to the engineers for their effort to get this release out finally, no thanks at all to Apple's management for delaying the release. Anyway, you'll find the release notes here.

And regarding this blog post's title: There is no catch? Unfortunately, there is... There are some exceptions (and you shouldn't throw exceptions within the finally block, right?).
First, Apple's Java 6 implementation requires Mac OS X 10.5.2 or newer, but this was to be expected. Second (and more important), the release is for 64-bit Intel Macs only (i.e. Core2Duo or newer). No Java 6 for PPC Macs or even 32-bit Intel Macs (CoreDuo). Bummer.

If you've installed a developer preview version of Java SE 6, the Java update probably won't show up in your Software Updates. Deleting the preview installation should fix this:

  sudo rm /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6
  sudo rm -R /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6.0

If you want to change the system's default Java version, do not mess with certain symlinks in the system's directories but use /Applications/Utilities/Java/Java Preferences instead (you have been warned).

And if your Mac or your operating system does not meet the requirements, there's always the possibility to use the Open Source Java 6 implementation called "SoyLatte".