You are probably aware we are not fans of Java on the client, quite frankly considering the constant updates needed and the inability to shut off Java checks for updates its time for something new. I have been happily using SAPgui 7.2 without a problem for over a year now, our developers recently encountered a problem with the older SAPgui that was fixed in 7.3 so it was time to update. I downloaded the SAPGui 7.3 rev 8 and installed it on my mac, should have been as easy as that I imagined. Sadly it wasn’t. 
Firstly got a message that it could not find the current JRE, I don’t have the JDK installed but have the JRE installed and I thought working perfectly. 
Since the old SAPgui was still installed I checked to see if that was still operational and I could use that to troubleshoot what was happening. 
From the looks of it SAPgui is still using 1.60 which is the Java VM that Apple provides by default, this is even though I installed Java 1.70 a year ago successfully. This is why I hate working with Java, so now I have two different versions running which is know is supported but I am sure like most corporate desktops we only want to run one version so we can try and support that. Sure enough when running Java – Versions it lists 1.6 
Based on a tip, I downloaded the full on JDK 217MB and installed it 
that solved the problem. Apparently the newest SAPgui version requires the full JDK install as opposed to just the JRE that most people have installed. 
I’ll look it to the why a little bit later but now that I have the solution just thought Id share it. Later…..
Phillip Avelar is a Managing partner at Advanced Solutions, based in Chicago. He works with SAP enterprises to optimize their supply chains, increase productivity and challenges the status quo. He shares his passion for solving customers problems in his blog posts, industry articles and conference talks.