Java Version 281 Download

[Abbie Pilz]

The Java language has undergone several changes since JDK 1.0 as well as numerous additions of classes and packages to the standard library. Since J2SE 1.4, the evolution of the Java language has been governed by the Java Community Process (JCP), which uses Java Specification Requests (JSRs) to propose and specify additions and changes to the Java platform. The language is specified by the Java Language Specification (JLS); changes to the JLS are managed under JSR 901. In September 2017, Mark Reinhold, chief Architect of the Java Platform, proposed to change the release train to "one feature release every six months" rather than the then-current two-year schedule.[1][2] This proposal took effect for all following versions, and is still the current release schedule.

In addition to the language changes, other changes have been made to the Java Class Library over the years, which has grown from a few hundred classes in JDK 1.0 to over three thousand in J2SE 5. Entire new APIs, such as Swing and Java2D, have been introduced, and many of the original JDK 1.0 classes and methods have been deprecated, and very few APIs have been removed (at least one, for threading, in Java 22[3]). Some programs allow the conversion of Java programs from one version of the Java platform to an older one (for example Java 5.0 backported to 1.4) (see Java backporting tools).

Regarding Oracle Java SE Support Roadmap,[4] version 22 is the latest one, and versions 21, 17, 11 and 8 are the currently supported long-term support (LTS) versions, where Oracle Customers will receive Oracle Premier Support. Oracle continues to release no-cost public Java 8 updates for development[4] and personal use indefinitely. Oracle also continues to release no-cost public Java 17 LTS updates for all users, including commercial and production use until September 2024.[5]

The release on December 8, 1998 and subsequent releases through J2SE 5.0 were rebranded retrospectively Java 2 and the version name "J2SE" (Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition) replaced JDK to distinguish the base platform from J2EE (Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition) and J2ME (Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition). This was a very significant release of Java as it tripled the size of the Java platform to 1520 classes in 59 packages. Major additions included:[19]

The release on September 30, 2004 was originally numbered 1.5, which is still used as the internal version number. The number was changed to "better reflect the level of maturity, stability, scalability and security of the J2SE".[26] This version was developed under JSR 176.

Java SE 5 entered its end-of-public-updates period on April 8, 2008; updates are no longer available to the public as of November 3, 2009. Updates were available to paid Oracle customers until May 2015.[4]

Java 5 is the last release of Java to officially support Microsoft Windows 98 and Windows ME,[31] while Windows Vista was the newest version of Windows that Java SE 5 was supported on prior to Java 5 going end-of-life in October of 2009.[25]

Both version numbers "1.5.0" and "5.0" are used to identify this release of the Java 2 Platform Standard Edition. Version "5.0" is the product version, while "1.5.0" is the developer version. The number "5.0" is used to better reflect the level of maturity, stability, scalability and security of the J2SE.

As of the version released on December 11, 2006, Sun replaced the name "J2SE" with Java SE and dropped the ".0" from the version number.[35] Internal numbering for developers remains 1.6.0.[36]

During the development phase, new builds including enhancements and bug fixes were released approximately weekly. Beta versions were released in February and June 2006, leading up to a final release that occurred on December 11, 2006.

Java 6 reached the end of its supported life in February 2013, at which time all public updates, including security updates, were scheduled to be stopped.[43][44] Oracle released two more updates to Java 6 in March and April 2013, which patched some security vulnerabilities.[45][46]

Some developers have noticed an issue introduced in this release which causes debuggers to miss breakpoints seemingly randomly.[53] Sun has a corresponding bug, which is tracking the issue. The workaround applies to the Client and Server VMs.[54] Using the -XX:+UseParallelGC option will prevent the failure. Another workaround is to roll back to update 13, or to upgrade to update 16.

Java 7 was a major update that launched on July 7, 2011[85] and was made available for developers on July 28, 2011.[86] The development period was organized into thirteen milestones; on June 6, 2011, the last of the thirteen milestones was finished.[86][87] On average, 8 builds (which generally included enhancements and bug fixes) were released per milestone. The feature list at the OpenJDK 7 project lists many of the changes.

Lambda (Java's implementation of lambda functions), Jigsaw (Java's implementation of modules), and part of Coin were dropped from Java 7, and released as part of Java 8 (except for Jigsaw, which was released in Java 9).[105][106]

Oracle issued public updates to the Java 7 family on a quarterly basis[108] until April 2015 when the product reached the end of its public availability.[109] Further updates for JDK 7, which continued until July 2022, are only made available to customers with a support contract.[110]

Java 8 is not supported on Windows XP[158] but as of JDK 8 update 25, it can still be installed and run under Windows XP.[159] Previous updates of JDK 8 could be run under XP by downloading archived zip format file and unzipping it for the executable. The last version of Java 8 could run on XP is update 251.

From October 2014, Java 8 was the default version to download (and then again the download replacing Java 9) from the official website.[160] "Oracle will continue to provide Public Updates and auto updates of Java SE 8, Indefinitely for Personal Users".[161]

Java SE 9 was made available on September 21, 2017[238] due to controversial acceptance of the current implementation of Project Jigsaw by Java Executive Committee[239] which led Oracle to fix some open issues and concerns and to refine some critical technical questions. In the last days of June 2017, Java Community Process expressed nearly unanimous consensus on the proposed Module System scheme.[240]

At JavaOne 2011, Oracle discussed features they hoped to release for Java 9 in 2016.[248] Java 9 should include better support for multi-gigabyte heaps, better native code integration, a different default garbage collector (G1, for "shorter response times")[249] and a self-tuning JVM.[250] In early 2016, the release of Java 9 was rescheduled for March 2017[251] and later again postponed four more months to July 2017.[252]

The preview feature JEP 325 extends the switch statement so it can also be used as an expression, and adds a new form of case label where the right hand side is an expression. No break statement is needed. For complex expressions a yield statement can be used. This becomes standard in Java SE 14.

JDK 15 was released on September 15, 2020. Java 15 adds e.g. support for multi-line string literals (aka Text Blocks). The Shenandoah and Z garbage collectors (latter sometimes abbreviated ZGC) are now ready for use in production (i.e. no longer marked experimental). Support for Oracle's Solaris operating system (and SPARC CPUs) is dropped (while still available in e.g. Java 11). The Nashorn JavaScript Engine is removed. Also removed some root CA certificates.

JEP 360 Sealed Classes adds sealed classes and interfaces that restrict which other classes or interfaces may extend or implement them. Only those classes specified in a permits clause may extend the class or interface.

Together with records, sealed classes are sum types. They work well with other recent features like records, switch expressions, and pattern matching for instance-of. They all form part of a system for "Pattern matching in Java" first discussed by Gavin Bierman and Brian Goetz, in September 2018.[330]

JEP 406 extends the pattern matching syntax used in instanceof operations to switch statements and expressions. It allows cases to be selected based on the type of the argument, null cases and refining patterns

JEP 405 allows record patterns, extending the pattern matching capabilities of instanceof operators, and switch expressions, to include record patterns that explicitly refer to the components of the record.

Java 21 was released on 19 September 2023.[388] There are eight JEPs that are not in preview or incubating, compared to Java 20 which only had previewing and incubating JEPs. Java 21 introduces features first previewed in Java 17 (pattern matching for switch statements) and Java 19 (record patterns). The 32-bit version of Java for Windows on x86 has been deprecated for removal.

Visual J++ and the Microsoft Java Virtual Machine were created as incompatible implementations. After the Sun v. Microsoft lawsuit, Microsoft abandoned it and began work on the .NET platform. In 2021, Microsoft started distributing compatible "Microsoft Build of OpenJDK" for Java 11 first then also for Java 17. Their builds support not only Windows, but also Linux and macOS.

Prior to the release of OpenJDK, while Sun's implementation was still proprietary, the GNU Classpath project was created to provide a free and open-source implementation of the Java platform. Since the release of JDK 7, when OpenJDK became the official reference implementation, the original motivation for the GNU Classpath project almost completely disappeared, and its last release was in 2012.

The Apache Harmony project was started shortly before the release of OpenJDK. After Sun's initial source code release, the Harmony project continued, working to provide an implementation under a lax license, in contrast to the protective license chosen for OpenJDK. Google later developed Android and released it under a lax license. Android incorporated parts of the Harmony project, supplemented with Google's own Dalvik virtual machine and ART. Apache Harmony has since been retired, and Google has switched its Harmony components with equivalent ones from OpenJDK.

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