<gasp> I might even have a JDK on my machine by the end of today.
This is great news for Windows users.
A HN user should know better.
The JDK never had any bundles.
The JREs which are available at http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/inde... also never had any bundle, even on Sun days.
The only one with bundles is the download from http://java.com/ and even then, it isn't Oracle or Sun's fault if people lack reading skills.
EDIT: Truth hurts
Oh. I stand corrected.
> http://java.com/ and even then, it isn't Oracle or Sun's fault if people lack reading skills.
Registrant Organization: Oracle Corporation
The adware-bundled installer is provided by Oracle. Whether or not I know better to install adware is irrelevant (because I do, and that's why I don't currently have a JRE installed). Nowhere does Oracle indicate where you can get the JRE without the adware bundle. Your comment is the first time I have read that such an installer exists.
What is relevant is Aunt Tilly's experience - as any HN user should know. She is told by something that she needs Java, goes here[1], clicks on the first link and gets adware. That is victimizing the ignorant and is why I do not take Oracle, and by association Java, seriously. That is why Zulu is exciting - because maybe now I can correct that perception and start doing some Java.
Reality hurts.
Azul only works on the JVM. IBM/Oracle works on the JVM + other things.
Because as we know companies are only capable of doing one thing at a time and could never manage multiple projects. Because Java/JVM itself was written by that single focused company: Sun.
OpenJDK is just source code. Binaries (built by various companies and orgs) comes from someplace else, and are usually called something else. E.g. RedHat calls theirs "IcedTea". Azul calls their binary distro of OpenJDK "Zulu".
When you get a binary build of OpenJDK from some place (in tar/zip form, or deb or rpm package form), some of those are well built and tested (e.g. Azul's Zulu and RedHat's IcedTead, and obviously Oracle's own JDKs). But some may not be. they may just be a random build from a random point in the source tree, using unknown tool chains and shipped with little or notesting. E.g. the Java 8 version you'd currently get on the experimental debian:sid repos is base don 8u40: a source tree that is still in flux and not planned to be released as 8u40 until March of 2015.
Many people care about running on a JDK version that was actually tested and verified. Right now Zulu is the only binary build of a Java 8 OpenJDK that meets that need. And on MacOS or Windows, it's the only one for 7 and 6 as well.
What are the benefits of this "commercialization"?