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I have Adobe CS5 installed (old version because it's what my institutional site license covers) on Mavericks.
Whenever I boot my system, I get the following dialog box:
However, I don't have Java SE 6 installed, only Java SE 7 (and JDK 7). I don't particularly want Java SE 6 on my system since it is now quite ancient and probably full of security holes by this point. If I try to launch any of the CS5 apps, I get the same prompt.
Is it possible to run CS5 without Java 6 SE on Mavericks?
I don't know if this works for CS5 and Mavericks, but for CS6 I have found a solution for Yosemite (more details there):
/System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk./System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents to /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents from your Java 7 / 8./System/Library/Java/Support/Deploy.bundle.Paths on Mavericks may differ a bit though.
Also, you'll probably need to be root to do this, so use sudo using an administrative account.
Some applications have expectations about the Java run time that are not compatible with more recent versions of Java; CS5 apps seem to be among those.
Apple has continued to maintain Java 6, addressing security flaws in their version. The current most recent update for Apple's Java 6 was in May 2014. Oracle meanwhile has moved on to Java 7 and 8 for the platforms it supports, including OS X, and no longer provides free support for its Java 6.
You can have multiple Java 6, 7, and 8s installed at the same time on Mavericks (one JRE, multiple JDKs.) From a terminal window the command /usr/libexec/java_home -verbose will list all those that the system knows about. man java_home will explain how to select one or another.
If you want to run CS5 you will need to install Apple's Java 6.
