On: JDK 21 Release Notes

[reactordev]

People have been burned too many times by Oracle “true-ups”. And no, it’s not FUD. Their license explicitly states that JEE/SE (not JRE) is covered by their commercial license, not their open source license. This year, in 2023, Oracle introduced the enterprise-wide metric license model. So if you use Java for anything in your organization, they charge you based on your organization size. (All or nothing model).

[n2d4 → reactordev]

That licensing would be the Oracle JDK. Not OpenJDK like parent was talking about, which is wholly open-source (supporting SE but not EE) and also maintained by Oracle but without LTS.

See my other comment about Adoptium vs. OpenJDK vs. Oracle JDK: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37571143

[reactordev → n2d4]

Yes, Oracle JDK, the default one you are directed to at oracle.com. Java.net provides OpenJDK.

[kaba0 → reactordev]

There is no such thing as a JRE anymore. And even the commercial OracleJDK is free to use (though not libre).

[reactordev → kaba0]

Some people would beg to differ. There are some organizations that have Java desktop apps, some that have kiosks and appliances that run JRE-like environments. There are some that are still on Java 8.

[cbm-vic-20 → reactordev]

This is what jlink is for.