Comment by mahmud | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mahmud | Hacker News Reader

Text:

"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"

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In reply to:

"Mr. Jobs:

I am the CTO and founder of a Software company based in Philadelphia. We create and sell Enterprise software into the health care space.

Our software is Java based, and runs on both the server and desktop. We have been in business for over 12 years now, and are a healthy growing company with about 180 employees.

I am a big Apple customer, as is my company. We love developing and testing Java based software on OS X.

Today in the news were stories like this: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/10/21/apple_threatens_to_k...

and here's another example: http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-20020338-260.html

I am hoping you would consider commenting either to me or via your PR channels what are the future plans for the Java programming language and platform on OS X?

One last note - a growing trend over the last few years at all the software conferences I attend is the popularity of the Macbook laptops. Go to any non-Microsoft focused developers conference and the rooms are typically dominated by Mac laptops. One major reason for this is that OS X is a great platform for Java developers.

thanks

Scott Fraser CTO, Portico Systems http://www.porticosys.com

Missing bit at the end of the original message:

"This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message."

It is amusing that these stern words, particularly regarding distribution, never seem to apply to the sender.

That's the footer of Scott's email, not Steve's (Steve's is 'Sent from my iPhone' -- he knows any of his email replies could end up online, of course). He's allowed to share his own correspondence if he wants :)

I think ez77 is pointing out the irony that Scott just published Steve's email response for the entire universe to see, but the footer message on his original email indicates Scott would be none too pleased if Steve did the same to him.

That footer is one of those "If you do this in an email, I hate you" bits from the Oatmeal: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/email

That's what I meant, indeed. If you unilaterally demand to keep things confidential and undistributed, it would seem consistent to do the same. On the other hand, I realize Jobs is fully aware that most of his replies will be published.

>It is amusing that these stern words, particularly regarding distribution, never seem to apply to the sender.

Of course, they never apply to the recipient either, absent further contracts or social pressure. You can put whatever you want in your signature; it doesn't make that able to be enforced.

What might be important which I've observed is that no one of importance seems to read signature disclaimers. Or at least they didn't in my case.

As a grunt programmer while working for one large defense contractor some years ago, I put something similar to the following, embedded in a paragraph of mind-numbing boilerplate and no one up the food chain seemed to notice.

If you are not the intended recipient, you need not do anything. Men in black will come to erase your memory. Have a good day.

It's a legal thing. He mentioned his software was for the healthcare field. He has to, or chooses to, end all emails like that because it's common to the field.

> I am hoping you would consider commenting either to me or via your PR channels what are the future plans for the Java programming language and platform on OS X?

That would be a question for Oracle at this point. I think Apple just let us know what their plans are for Java.

This makes me wonder if Apple has a redistributable license for Java that allows them to build the Java binaries with OS X, or if Sun was the one that built the binaries that have been included in OS X install discs, but allowed them to be shipped out under Apple's control. I can't find any Java code on opensource.apple.com, so I'm assuming the latter.

My personal opinion on the issue is one where Apple and/or Oracle decided that Oracle should control the release schedule of their own software, just like they do with every other platform. I really don't understand why this is such a big deal. Apple decided to not do something completely different and adopted a "normal" behavior and everyone freaks out, just like they do when Apple does something different.

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