Your claim regarding java on OS X does match my memory.  I recall java beign one of the 3 core platform choices for developments on OS X since 10.0 (Cocoa, Java, Carbon).<p>Java still ships with Mac OS X (though you need to switch to 64bit java to enable the Java 6 version that ships).<p>The only thing apple have done regarding java is deprecate the Java-Cocoa bridge.