Ok, I am finally up-to-date with Java lore. It came with the simple question: Why does Oracle still distribute Java 8 at java.com per default to clients (the latest is Java 25)🤔!
TLDR: Currently recommended: Adoptium Temurin (Java 21 LTS), https://whichjdk.com/
What happened? A bit of context: Oracle changed Java licensing around 2019. Around Java 11, Oracle introduced a subscription-based licensing for many production use cases. They changed the free use again for “internal business operations”, but since then, it seems like Oracle JDK is no longer the obvious free default for many use cases.
Also, Java 8 is still the default download on java.com because it is the last version that Oracle shipped as an end-user JRE. Since Java 9, they no longer distribute the runtime separately and applications are expected to ship their own runtime with tools like jlink.
But then in 2021: The AdoptOpenJDK project moved to the Eclipse Foundation and became Eclipse Adoptium, which now distributes the Temurin OpenJDK builds. (They btw distribute separate JDK and JRE environments again: https://adoptium.net/de/news/2021/10/jlink-to-produce-own-runtime !)
In fact, a lot of alternative OpenJDK builds grew:
- Eclipse Temurin (Adoptium)
- Amazon Corretto
- Azul Zulu
- Microsoft Build of OpenJDK
- Red Hat OpenJDK, etc.
They are all based on the same OpenJDK source code, mainly differing in build pipelines, support policies, and packaging.
So what is the current state of Java?
Current Java release cycle:
- New Java version every 6 months
- LTS releases roughly every 2 years
Current important versions:
- Java 17 (LTS, widely deployed)
- Java 21 (current LTS, recommended)
- Java 25 (latest release)
And a lot of cool features since Java 8, like modules, var, records, switch expressions, pattern matching, and the new fancy virtual thread system (Project Loom). Concluding: Unless you have constraints, Java 21 LTS is the safe default with Adoptium. The distributions Amazon Corretto, Azul Zulu and BellSoft Liberica are also fine.
A lot has happened since Java 8, from Oracle licenses, Adoptium, the jlink tool, and more. I am thinking about writing a blog post with the best-of new features between 8 and 21/25. Would that be interesting :)? Is Java still cool in 2026?