StarDestroyer.Net BBS

I'm trying to help a friend with his Mac - he needs Java 2 (the JRE, I presume, since it's to get a particular piece of software to work) but he's stuck with OSX 10.2.4. I've checked the software update program and the Apple site but I can't find a link to the older installer, the current one only works on 10.4 and up.

Upgrading the OS is not an option, nor is using another computer. Is there an older installer somewhere on the web?

he should at least do the software updates to 10.2.8 (free)

What's the failure rate on 10.2.x->10.2.8 updates? He's skittish about installing anything.

I've advised a backup, update to *.8 and pointed him to a JRE download for older Mac versions here, which I hope installs a full version.

I've never had a problem with up dates, but that's just me personally. It's too bad you can not score a copy of 10.3.9 for him, low end mac swaplist is a good place to look for a legit copy if you were to try.
There's some major changes from 10.2 to 10.3 and software that works on 10.3 and 10.4 won't nessesarily work on 10.2.

10.3.9 is the bare, bare minimum you should be running at this point. 10.3.9 cannot run binaries compiled with gcc 4, which means that no universal Mac application will run on on Jaguar unless the developer has taken special steps to support it.

If you can't get him to upgrade, then at least get him to update to 10.2.8 and install all relevant security updates.

Is there any reason why a file created by a Java program running on OSX would be unreadable to that same program? I've tried the program on Linux and it works fine, but on the Mac it refuses to read the files it created itself.