If this is as stated, then Oracle will still offer macOS/x64 ports of Java 11 LTS, Java 17 LTS, Java 21 LTS and Java 25 LTS.
Java 25 LTS was released last year. All these LTS versions are still receiving updates. You'll only be in trouble if you need some new feature of Java that will only begin to exist in JDK 27 or later, but want to run on macOS/x64.
I'm curious if there are any decently representative use share stats out there for Mac Intel vs ARM. I tried finding some a while ago and found nothing really conclusive (mostly for niches like developer tools or games - what's the long tail look like?).
June 2026 Steam Survey[1] says 23% Intel and Homebrew 30d [2] says 27% Intel. My gut says 20-25% is a reasonable ballpark.
Apple generally provides 6-8 years of OS support for hardware. My 6.5 year old 2019 Macbook Pro works fine with macOS 26; macOS 27 will drop support in September 2026; macOS 28 will drop Rosetta Intel support. macOS 26 get updates thru September 2028 at which point all Intel mac hardware will be >8 years old.
We haven't given out an Intel Mac at work (enterprise with 50k users, maybe 1/5th use Macs) in years....I think we might have a handful of people still using one, but it's gotta be 500:1
This keeps getting posted and is not true. Rosetta is still present and working. It throws a deprecation warning notice but otherwise runs fine.
It's macOS 28 that will no longer run x86_64 apps, although games are exempt. Rosetta is basically going game only at that point. They haven't announced how long it will keep working in this capacity.
The basic answer is ability to run x86_64 will still be there, but the system frameworks (apart from like OpenGL shims etc.) will no longer be shipped with x86_64 slices.
I've got a notification stating that in the next update the device (a working scanner) will stop being supported, probably because of the lack of ARM driver.
I guess I'm the only one who is still on x64. I don't like I'm pushed to migrate only because the software wants that, otherwise the hardware works with no problem.
The writing has been on the wall for the last 7 years and the LTS of JDK 25 goes until 2030, 11 years from the point Apple announced their intentions. Java for Mac apps or native Java backend development has always been niche as well. For Java development for Linux hosting, you still have a path forwards beyond 2030 with virtualization. How's your SPARC dev machine holding up?
"Does the hardware physically work" isn't ever really the question under consideration, though, for better or worse. For Macs specifically, it is going to get increasingly difficult to even test things in the coming years. Mac x86 builds are by far the flakiest on GitHub in my experience, there's no expanding capacity, only refurbished machines 6 years out, and the number of users is dwindling, not to mention the enormous performance gap. So what do you do? When we last asked about it in a project I work on a few users expressed interest, so we kept it, but that isn't forever. The JDK as a project probably has a different risk profile than most other projects too so the cost of keeping around that code can be relatively high.
Not saying it is always good, in fact I would say there is rarely a "good" happy outcome in these cases, just trying to give the alternative perspective when you have to make these calls.
That's just how things go. But, existing Oracle JDK versions will continue to work, and openjdk might continue to support osx/amd64 as a target.. so I wouldn't worry too much about this.
In the same way that PowerPC and m68k hardware still works, sure. Apple silicon is so performant that (much like those previous two hardware jumps) it's not worth maintaining support for the old arch at this point.
Java 25 is an LTS, I guess you can use that for a couple of years still. But at some point of time, macOS will be too old and all kinds of software will no longer install.
Intel Macs can run practically anything. Mine had a triple-boot between macOS, Windows and Arch Linux, back when that kind of thing was possible.
Apple's really cut off gaming for good. My only hope is that someone ports FEX/Proton back to macOS, or finds a way to get it running with proper hardware acceleration.
Why? I can upgrade, that's not a problem. I'm just saying macOS works fine so far, almost all of the software works too. But I see increasing amount of announcements like this one suggesting that I'll have to replace hardware to get the latest versions. So I guess I will do that only to be able to use that software, not to get better performance.
I feel like Apple got a lot of devs who would otherwise be Linux users on board circa 2005 due to solid-feeling laptop hardware with drivers and power management that just worked. That pattern became self-propagating as startups scaled up, bought a lot of Macs and hired Mac IT people.
But Linux has gotten better in that time period, too. I wouldn’t say it’s quite as refined out of the box. But Linux is ahead in the ability to do whatever you want and keep using your old hardware.
For people who care about how computers work, I think Linux is a more stimulating environment than macOS to work in. Even though—or partly because—you may have to dig in a little deeper to get things working the ways you want.
Have just read above that it's possible. It's interesting actually. So I guess I'll do that once I buy a new mac. I have a maxed out pro, with i9 and so on, so throwing it await would be a shame
If you have Apple Intel hardware, I strongly strongly strongly recommend you migrate to Linux. It works amazingly on MacOS, except I guess the sound drivers aren't perfect. Too many security holes in old, unpatched software.
I second that. I wouldn’t buy an Intel Mac specifically to run Linux, but my T2 Mac Minis work well for me on Linux. I did have to copy some Broadcom firmware from macOS, and I keep a small macOS installation in order to access recovery mode settings.
My Macbook Air 2021 M1 flies circles around my 2014 MBP. I got a new battery for the 2014 but the rubber bezel is disintegrating. I'm thinking of turning the 2014 into a TV driver but that's about it.
People want computers to take on new jobs and the hardware is a limiting factor on that. And even if it can take on a job, that doesn't mean it does it as well as a newer machine.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced at May's Worldwide Developer Conference in San Jose, Calif., Mac OS X will come with a full implementation of Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Java 2, Standard Edition. It will be the only high-volume OS that does so
Oracle screwed themselves lately, the licensing push basically started IT departments with exterminating Java and anything related to it.
You did well to skip the 2015-2020 era (butterfly keyboards, touchbar).
With that said anything M1 or newer is going to be a delightful upgrade for you. An enormous jump in performance, battery life, and thermal performance.
Wasn't Java once a "write once, run everywhere"? Not that this affects me personally (I use Linux primarily; and have a Win10 machine for testing on my left hand side here), but it seems strange that Oracle supports fewer operating systems rather than more. Perhaps Oracle aims for a windows11-only Java version ... where everyone must verify his or her age.
Write once, run everywhere refers to the target bytecode running on a compliant JVM. Since apple itself has mentioned to officially drop intel support, OpenJDK maintainers have no reason to continue support on a deprecated hardware.
That said, if there is any enterprise/ community that requires a port for intel macs then, they can maintain it.
link to become a maintainer: https://openjdk.org/projects/
[Submitted title was "As of JDK 27, Oracle engineers will thus stop maintaining the macOS/x64 port", which is a quote from the article, but was a bit confusing in the title]
I think it’s clear from the “Motivation” section, as it’s actually preceded by another sentence there.
> Apple has transitioned its hardware products to the AArch64 processor architecture and is phasing out support for x64. Oracle engineers will thus stop maintaining the macOS/x64 port as of JDK 27.
It’s fine to have it as a normal word, it might even be one! Hehe it is to me at least :)
However, I believe OP is right, it’s un…grammatical? -parasable? in the headline? There’s no…referent?
More plain spoken :) - there’s nothing indicating what lead to the thus. I.e. “it’s raining thus I brought my umbrella”, we’re missing the “It’s raining” part
Java 25 LTS was released last year. All these LTS versions are still receiving updates. You'll only be in trouble if you need some new feature of Java that will only begin to exist in JDK 27 or later, but want to run on macOS/x64.
Apple generally provides 6-8 years of OS support for hardware. My 6.5 year old 2019 Macbook Pro works fine with macOS 26; macOS 27 will drop support in September 2026; macOS 28 will drop Rosetta Intel support. macOS 26 get updates thru September 2028 at which point all Intel mac hardware will be >8 years old.
[1]: https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/processormfg/ [2]: https://formulae.brew.sh/analytics/homebrew-os-arch-ci/30d/
PS: and on my Win11 machine Firefox says that I'm on 'Windows NT 10.0', which AFAIK is the same NT version that was also reported on Win10.
It's macOS 28 that will no longer run x86_64 apps, although games are exempt. Rosetta is basically going game only at that point. They haven't announced how long it will keep working in this capacity.
Kind of a weird vibe.
Not saying it is always good, in fact I would say there is rarely a "good" happy outcome in these cases, just trying to give the alternative perspective when you have to make these calls.
In the same way that PowerPC and m68k hardware still works, sure. Apple silicon is so performant that (much like those previous two hardware jumps) it's not worth maintaining support for the old arch at this point.
Apple's really cut off gaming for good. My only hope is that someone ports FEX/Proton back to macOS, or finds a way to get it running with proper hardware acceleration.
But Linux has gotten better in that time period, too. I wouldn’t say it’s quite as refined out of the box. But Linux is ahead in the ability to do whatever you want and keep using your old hardware.
For people who care about how computers work, I think Linux is a more stimulating environment than macOS to work in. Even though—or partly because—you may have to dig in a little deeper to get things working the ways you want.
Or switch software. Windows will run via Boot Camp and depending on your hardware Linux might work too.
Being a laptop, the power draw is almost negligible and it doesn't take much space.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced at May's Worldwide Developer Conference in San Jose, Calif., Mac OS X will come with a full implementation of Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Java 2, Standard Edition. It will be the only high-volume OS that does so
Oracle screwed themselves lately, the licensing push basically started IT departments with exterminating Java and anything related to it.
With that said anything M1 or newer is going to be a delightful upgrade for you. An enormous jump in performance, battery life, and thermal performance.
Well, the Latin word for "left" is "sinister", so that tracks.
EDIT: I should actually click the link, not just read the title. Rip.
[Submitted title was "As of JDK 27, Oracle engineers will thus stop maintaining the macOS/x64 port", which is a quote from the article, but was a bit confusing in the title]
> Apple has transitioned its hardware products to the AArch64 processor architecture and is phasing out support for x64. Oracle engineers will thus stop maintaining the macOS/x64 port as of JDK 27.
However, I believe OP is right, it’s un…grammatical? -parasable? in the headline? There’s no…referent?
More plain spoken :) - there’s nothing indicating what lead to the thus. I.e. “it’s raining thus I brought my umbrella”, we’re missing the “It’s raining” part