In short, the question of Java 8 support for 10.7.x depended on which system requirement page was correct. The system requirements linked from the download page state that Oracle’s Java requires the following: The second set is available via the Java download page for Mac OS X. This page states that Java 8 requires the following:
The first set is available via Oracle’s general Java system requirements page. 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.
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. With Oracle’s Java 8, there’s been some confusion as to whether Java 8 runs on Mac OS X 10.7.5.
