Re: JRE in a subdirectory

You forget to factor in that Apple considers Java part of the operating system. So they may update things in the operating system in conjunction with things in Java 5 that would break older versions of Java 5. In other words 10.4.3 update may change Java 5 (heck may even include it) and Mac OS X enough that your version of Java 5 you distribute won't work or will begin to fail. Apple's Java implementation is rather intertwined with Cocoa framework among several others. Regardless doing this isn't supported by Apple and isn't allowed for under Apple software license, so the rest is academic.

Apple generally considers the Java framework like the Cocoa framework. The Cocoa framework isn't designed for bundling by third-parties nor is the Java framework. They don't want third-parties distributing various version of the Cocoa framework, Apple wants to manage it. The same holds true for Java framework. Third-parties are expected to test against Mac OS X versions that they want to support and by extension Cocoa framework feature/bug sets they want to support. The same expectation holds for Java on Mac OS X. What is possible on other platforms is unimportant in the face of this expectation and model that Apple uses, it is what it is.

Personally I wish Apple would fully fix releases of Java updates to Mac OS X updates (they have been inconsistent). In other words you would only get Java updates as part of Mac OS X updates. I feel the same way about how QuickTime releases are done. This would standardize how developers tests against Mac OS X, you test against 10.x.y not 10.x.y + java update 1 + quicktime w.z. Obviously release train alignment and time to market concerns have generally prevented them from fully and consistently going this route.

-Shawn