Re:Reasons to upgrade from Java 8
by pron on Thursday April 15, 2021 @11:59AM
(#26822119)
I work at Oracle on OpenJDK (but I speak only for myself):
1. OpenJDK is the name of the one and only Java implementation by Oracle (other companies contribute, but Oracle does ~90% of the work); all OpenJDK distributions -- from Amazon's through Microsoft's to Azul's Zulu -- are licensed to you by Oracle (read the license); and if you report to Amazon about a big in Corretto (their OpenJDK distribution), most of the time they'll forward it to us at Oracle to fix, because we're the ones actually developing the thing. So if you want to avoid anything that touches Oracle, OpenJDK is what you should avoid as that is the name of Oracle's implementation (look at the logo! https://openjdk.java.net/). But the "licensing mess" is Oracle open sourcing the entire JDK for the first time in Java's history, and using the name Oracle JDK as the name for their support subscription; if you don't want support, download the JDK from Oracle from http://jdk.java.net/, which, unlike all JDKs prior to 11 is actually completely free. The only licensing difference is that whereas the JDK used to be part open and part proprietary, part free and part paid, it is now 100% open and free. Oracle sells you support, or you can buy it from other companies that also offer support.
However, if you're on 8, your licensing situation is more problematic. Like all JDKs past their end-of-public-updates, you now have to pay for support, or use a free OpenJDK 8u build which 1. only contains backported patches that don't cover the entire JDK and 2. predates the full open-sourcing, so isn't identical to the old Oracle JDK. So not only is the license for versions past 11 better than ever in Java's history, the licensing situation for 8 is not that good because 8 is well past its free support period. Licensing alone is a reason to update.
2. There is no JRE anymore because there are no Applets and no Web Start, and so the model of a centralised runtime is not needed and has been replaced by something much better: custom bundled runtimes easily created with jlink. You, as the application's creator now have full control over its Java runtime, and your users don't need to interact with a third party, or even know or care that your application uses Java.
1. OpenJDK is the name of the one and only Java implementation by Oracle (other companies contribute, but Oracle does ~90% of the work); all OpenJDK distributions -- from Amazon's through Microsoft's to Azul's Zulu -- are licensed to you by Oracle (read the license); and if you report to Amazon about a big in Corretto (their OpenJDK distribution), most of the time they'll forward it to us at Oracle to fix, because we're the ones actually developing the thing. So if you want to avoid anything that touches Oracle, OpenJDK is what you should avoid as that is the name of Oracle's implementation (look at the logo! https://openjdk.java.net/). But the "licensing mess" is Oracle open sourcing the entire JDK for the first time in Java's history, and using the name Oracle JDK as the name for their support subscription; if you don't want support, download the JDK from Oracle from http://jdk.java.net/, which, unlike all JDKs prior to 11 is actually completely free. The only licensing difference is that whereas the JDK used to be part open and part proprietary, part free and part paid, it is now 100% open and free. Oracle sells you support, or you can buy it from other companies that also offer support.
However, if you're on 8, your licensing situation is more problematic. Like all JDKs past their end-of-public-updates, you now have to pay for support, or use a free OpenJDK 8u build which 1. only contains backported patches that don't cover the entire JDK and 2. predates the full open-sourcing, so isn't identical to the old Oracle JDK. So not only is the license for versions past 11 better than ever in Java's history, the licensing situation for 8 is not that good because 8 is well past its free support period. Licensing alone is a reason to update.
2. There is no JRE anymore because there are no Applets and no Web Start, and so the model of a centralised runtime is not needed and has been replaced by something much better: custom bundled runtimes easily created with jlink. You, as the application's creator now have full control over its Java runtime, and your users don't need to interact with a third party, or even know or care that your application uses Java.