With Oracle’s Java 8, there’s been some confusion as to whether Java 8 runs on Mac OS X 10.7.5. This issue was lent additional urgency in the wake of Oracle’s announcement that they will begin auto-updating Java 7 users to Java 8 starting in January 2015.
The root of the confusion lies in the fact that Oracle has listed two different sets of system requirements on their website for Macs running Java 8 on Mac OS X.
The first set is available via Oracle’s general Java system requirements page. This page states that Java 8 requires the following:
- Intel-based Mac running Mac OS X 10.8.3+, 10.9+
- Administrator privileges for installation
- 64-bit browser
The second set is available via the Java download page for Mac OS X. The system requirements linked from the download page state that Oracle’s Java requires the following:
- Intel-based Mac running Mac OS X 10.7.3 (Lion) or later.
- Administrator privileges for installation
- 64-bit browser
In short, the question of Java 8 support for 10.7.x depended on which system requirement page was correct. For more details, see below the jump.
Based on my testing, it appears that the current version of Java 8 (Java 8 Update 25) installs on Mac OS X 10.7.5 without issues.
Following installation, I tested on a 10.7.5 Mac against the following sites:
My work’s Juniper VPN (which uses a signed Java applet)
Oracle’s Java Test page: https://www.java.com/en/download/help/testvm.xml
Java Tester’s Java Version page: http://javatester.org/version.html
In all three cases, the Java applets on those sites launched and worked without issue using Java 8 Update 25 (though the javatester.org applet needed to be whitelisted.)
