Enabling Java 1.6 for Mac OS X

OK, I might be the last Java developer using a Mac to realize this, but apparently Mac OS X 1.5 (Tiger) uses J2SE 5.0 by default, even though Java SE 6 has been available for nearly two years.

I figured this out today while reading Google's instructions on how to create Java applications for App Engine. (Side note: Woot!) The section regarding compatibility with different versions of Java contained this curious sentence:

For developers that don't have easy access to Java 6 (such as developers using Mac OS X), the App Engine SDK is compatible with Java 5.

That was a head-scratcher. I know that Apple's support for Java usually lags Sun's releases for Windows/Solaris/Linux by a few months, but Java 6 was released over two years ago. Surely Apple has caught up by now, right? To the Terminal window!

Hank:~ mtye$ java -version
java version "1.5.0_16"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.5.0_16-b06-284)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.5.0_16-133, mixed mode, sharing)

Huh. That can't be right, can it? No, a little poking around on Apple's site reveals that Java SE 6 was pushed out to users with Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 1, back in May 2008. So where's my Java 6?

I found a crucial clue here. Apparently, in the /Applications/Utilities/Java directory, there's a Java Preferences application that can be used to determine which Java version is used by default. I fired it up and got this:

Oh, there's Java 6! Right behind the 32-bit version of Java 5, for some reason. Let's fix that with a little drag & drop:


Let's check again:

Hank:~ mtye$ java -version
java version "1.6.0_07"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_07-b06-153)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 1.6.0_07-b06-57, mixed mode)


Ah, that's much better. I feel so 2007 now!