Take the 2-minute tour ×

Will Mac OS X 10.5 ever update its Java SDK to 1.6 version?

share|improve this question
If you are concerned about current versions, why are you running 10.5? The upgrade to 10.6 is trivially cheap. –  Skyhawk Jun 23 '10 at 22:34
The thing is that I work in a company that develops a product that must run in Win, Mac (10.5 and 10.6). So I can upgrade, but maybe our clients(universities) can't. –  tou Aug 27 '10 at 17:31

4 Answers 4

up vote 2 down vote accepted

If you've installed the relevant updates (just run Software Update until you're up to date if you're not sure), then you do have Java 1.6.

The default Java install will still be 1.5, but you can get Java 1.6 by setting the JAVA_VERSION environment variable to 1.6 before running a Java application.

$ JAVA_VERSION=1.6 java -version
java version "1.6.0_17"

Alternatively you can also run the 1.6 version from /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6/Commands/java

Note that Java 1.6 is only supported on 64-bit Intel Macs.

share|improve this answer
how to change default java li-ma.blogspot.com/2009/01/… –  Adam Jun 7 '11 at 19:21

Assuming by "Mac OS 1.5" you mean "Mac OS X 10.5" the answer appears to be yes, two years ago:


But the actual System 1.5 would be from the late 80s, so I assume no. :-)

share|improve this answer
Yes, I meant Mac OS X 1.5. Weird thing is that if I run java -version in my Mac I get that it is 1.5. May I have not applied the right updates?? –  tou Jun 23 '10 at 20:42
The X in "OS X" is the roman numeral for 10. There is no such thing as Mac OS X v1.5. Either it's version 10 point something, or it's not OS X. –  Skyhawk Jun 23 '10 at 22:33
X is a 10, but the version number is also 10.something. Of course, uname gives another version number which I think in 10.6 happens to be 10.0 (it was 9.0 for 10.5). –  Andrew J. Brehm Jun 24 '10 at 9:07

yes, you can get it as a SoyLatte .

share|improve this answer
Thanks for your answer. I meant officially released by apple. –  tou Aug 27 '10 at 17:32

If I remember correctly, Java 1.6 was usable only on 64bit Intel machines, leaving out the first generation Intel systems and everything PPC.

share|improve this answer

Your Answer


