OpenJDK is basically the Java JDK. Oracle JDK is only a “fork” of it, but they have complete feature-parity. Oracle only provides paid support for current and older versions of OpenJDK (similarly to many other vendors)
So you can just install OpenJDK from a package manager, use the jlink tool and create your own small “JRE” that you want to bundle. Jpackage can create a platform native executable from that, that is either an installable exe, .deb, rpm or MacOS’s format (I forgot it’s name)
But Erlang was just such a good fit for this project. I wasn’t so huge on the Java version of Akka. I also briefly looked at Scala, but I avoid Scala for similar reasons to C++ and Haskell. The nativess of a lot of the features I wanted to Erlang just looked better and it will be a cool homage to the language’s roots.
Also this is probably more my fault, but I don’t really understand how distribution works anymore. Supposedly Oracle JDK is no longer supported and you’re supposed to package a JVM with your application, but all the big Java apps still require me to have a system wide JVM to run them? OpenJDK seems to work fine for now.
Also after toying with a LAPB implementation, I’m so mad other languages don’t have a good type for dealing bit level data. Bitstrings are a godsend.