Apple Releases New Java Updates For Snow Leopard and Leopard

Apple today released a pair of Java updates for users of Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Leopard, patching vulnerabilities and increasing reliability and compatibility.

- Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 4 (74. 81 MB, Requires Mac OS X 10.6.4)

Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 4 delivers improved compatibility, security, and reliability by updating Java SE 6 to 1.6.0_24.

- Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 9 (119.83 MB, Requires Mac OS X 10.5.8)

Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 9 delivers improved compatibility, security, and reliability by updating J2SE 5.0 to 1.5.0_28, and updating Java SE 6 to 1.6.0_24 for 64-bit capable Intel-based Macs. J2SE 1.4.2 is no longer being updated to fix bugs or security issues and remains disabled by default in this update.

Full details of the security improvements included in the updates are available in support documents for Snow Leopard and Leopard.

The releases come after Apple announced last October that it will be ceasing development of its custom Java installation packages. Apple CEO Steve Jobs argued that the current process that consistently sees Apple's packages being one version behind Oracle's "may not be the best way to do it".

Apple and Oracle later announced a partnership to bring the OpenJDK project to Mac OS X with Java SE 7, leaving Apple to continue supporting Java SE 6 as demonstrated by today's releases.