Java does come pre-installed on Mac computers. However, the version of Java that is pre-installed depends on the version of Mac OS X that you are using.
For Mac OS X 10.6 and below, which includes Snow Leopard and earlier versions, Apple’s Java comes pre-installed with the operating system. This means that you don’t need to manually install Java on your Mac if you are using one of these older versions of Mac OS X.
On the other hand, for Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) and above, Apple no longer includes Java as part of the default installation. This means that if you are using Mac OS X 10.7 or a later version, you will need to manually install Java if you want to use it on your Mac.
To get the latest version of Java for Mac OS X 10.7 and above, you will need to download it from Oracle, the company that now maintains Java. Oracle provides a Java Development Kit (JDK) for Mac OS X, which includes the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) necessary to run Java applications. You can download the JDK from the Oracle website and follow the installation instructions provided.
It’s worth noting that Java on Mac OS X has had a somewhat complicated history. In the past, Apple used to provide and maintain its own version of Java for Mac, but in 2010, Apple announced that it would be deprecating its own Java implementation and that future versions of Mac OS X would rely on Oracle’s Java instead.
This change meant that Apple would no longer be responsible for updating and maintaining Java on Mac, and instead, users would need to download and install Java directly from Oracle. This decision was made to ensure that Mac users would have the most up-to-date and secure version of Java, as Oracle is the primary developer of the Java platform.
However, this change also led to some confusion for Mac users, as they were no longer able to rely on Apple to handle Java updates and installation. Instead, they needed to be proactive in keeping their Java installation up to date by periodically checking for updates from Oracle and manually downloading and installing them.
While Java does come pre-installed on some versions of Mac OS X, it is not included by default on newer versions. If you are using Mac OS X 10.7 or above, you will need to manually download and install Java from Oracle to use it on your Mac.