Choose the RIGHT Java

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Choose the RIGHT Java

https://youtu.be/doaw2J3AwgM

· java,mashup

inspired by Java Champion Martjin Verburg

From "The Diabolical Developer's Guide to Picking Your Java"

Video => https://youtu.be/doaw2J3AwgM

Summary

Terminology
What happened to Oracle's Java?
Your options
OpenJDK providers
AdoptOpenJDK (Business ready binaries, Community, Build farm)

Terminology

👉 Java Standard Edition (Java SE)

Specification of Java language syntax, JVM and core librairies.
Defined by Java Community Process (JCP) under an umbrella of Java Specification Requests (JSR).

👉 Java Development Kit (JDK)

Contains the binary implementation of Java SE and can include extras.
Often tested using the Technical Compatibility Kit (TCK) to ensure conformance to the Java SE specification.

👉 OpenJDK - The Project / Code / Community

The Open Source code which is the Reference Implementation (RI) of the Java SE Standard
The project where this work occurs
The community which works on the source code

👉 The Binary

A JDK built directly from OpenJDK source code
Providers / Vendors produce OpenJDK binaries, OpenJDK (the project) does not

So think of OpenJDK has a place, not a thing (the thing is delivered by vendors: Oracle, IBM, RedHat, Azul, Alibaba, Bell soft)

What happened to Oracle's Java?

We use to download it on Oracle's website.

The licensing has changed.

Why?

For profit. Oracle wants to capitalize on Java.

👉 End of Java public updates

Oracle is providing free updates for six months (After six months you will not get critical fixes for free). That forces you to update your Java version, or to buy a subscription. If none of that makes it for you, you have other providers.
There is some devil in the detail: https://bit.ly/javaisstillfree

Your options

👉 Option 1: Get an Oracle Subscription

You'll get a great JDK with all the fixes, from the largest contributors to OpenJDK
You'll (in)directly be helping pay for R&D
Pricing at the lower number of JVMs is not prohibitive (It is reasonable even for small/meidum companies)
https://www.oracle.com/java/java-se-subscription

👉Option 2: Stay on the last update, don't get patches 💥

This is not recommended whatsoever

👉Option 3: Choose an OpenJDK providers

Red Hat/ SAP are leading the OpenJDK 8 and 11 update projects respectively

--Alibaba, Amazon, Azul, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Twitter are all supporting these projects--

You'll get a great JDK/JRE with all the fixes
--Including most 'Oracle only' fixes (for now)--
->you can get binaries that are free

--Commercial support is limited in some cases--

Open JDK providers

👉 Alibaba Dragonwell

Java 8 and 11 on Linux only, with safe Unsafe!

Java 8 and 11 only
Aliyun Linux, CentOS or RHEL Linux x86 only
Has some added protection for sun.misc.Unsafe calls

https://github.com/alibaba/dragonwell8/releases

👉Amazon Corretto

Java 8 and 11 - with James Gosling good vibes!

Java 8 and 11 only
Well tested, TCK compliant
Mac OS X, Windows, Linuxx x86 and aarch64
James works there 🙂
Supported on AWS!
Not supported anywhere else
Some performance and stability patches over and above the OpenJDK, but not many

👉Azul Zulu

Java 6, 7, 8, 11, 13; a trusted name

Azul have been providing Java for a long time
Well tested, TCK compliant
Mac OS X, Windows, Linuxx x86 and aarch64 others
Commercial support if you want it (MTS)
Some performance and stability patches over and above the OpenJDK RI, but not many
Sadly, not really in the OpenSource ☹
Midsize vendor

https://www.azul.com/downloads/zulu-community/

👉Distro based OpenJDK

Java 8 and 11 and more! Take some care.

Distro builds are easy to get!
Variable testing, some TCK, some not.
Works well with your distro / package manager
Only for your distro
No commercial support
Some issues in the past about chain of custody of source
yum or apt-get

👉Bellsoft Liberica

Java 8 and 11 and more! Former Oracle Engineers.

Bellsoft are new
Well tested, TCK compliant
Mac OS X, Windows, Linuxx x86 and aarch64 others
Commercial support if you want it 
Some performance and stability patches over and above the OpenJDK RI, but not many
Also Java consulting services
Relatively small vendor

https://bell-sw.com/

👉 Oracle OpenJDK

Reference implementations, it is NOT the COMMERCIAL JDK

Built by the stewards of Java
Well tested, passes the TCK
Windows, Mac, Linux x86
6 months of free updates only
No real documentation, community support or anything really

https://jdk.java.net/

👉Red Hat OpenJDK (with RHEL)

If you're on RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux), this is a bo brainer.

Built by the project leads of Java 8 and 11
Well tested, passes the TCK
RHEL only
Amazing support
Large vendor

https://developers.redhat.com/products/openjdk/

👉SAP Machine by SAP

Java 11 and 14, on s390 or PPC? Go for it!

Built by the stewards of Java 11
Well tested, passes the TCK
Windows, Mac, Linux, s390, PPC
Lead engineer went to Amazon recently
Small OpenJDK vendor

https://sap.github.io/SapMachine/

👉Extra choice: Eclipse OpenJ9

Eclipse OpneJ9 is an alternative VM to hotspot

->As a separate download, AdoptOpenJDK bundles this VM with OpenJDK class librairies
For some cloud/container workloads, it's faster and/or more efficient

https://www.eclipse.org/openj9

AdoptOpenJDK (aka Eclipse Adoptium)

AdoptOpenJDK originates from a reaction of the community, Java champions, vendors against a missing strong alternative to the Oracle subscription.

👉 Business ready binaries

The place to get free binaries by the community
--Windows x32/x64, Linux x86, Mac OS X, ARM x32/x64, AIX, zOS, PPC, Solaris Sparc/Intel and more!--
Professionally tested and passes the AdoptOpenJDK Quality Assurance
Community or Commercial support
Backed by Major Vendors and the Java Community!
Every distribution and installer mechanism under the sun
--Docker, Homebrew, Windows MSI, Mac OS X PJKG, Linux Yum/Apt--
The new home for IcedTea Web source and Java Mission Control binaries

👉 Open and transparent

The entire project is OSS
Technical Steering Committtee (TSC) is in the open
Build and Infra Tech Stacks (cool stuff you coulda tryout if you get involved)

Ansible for infrastructure as code
Modular/functional Bash scripts for builds
Jenkins (Groovy) based pipelines

MaaS, IaaS, Docker, Microsoft AzDO, AWS Codebuild supported
Github (https://github.com/adoptopenjdk) & Slack (https://adoptopenjdk.net/slack)

👉Lots of supporters:

digicert, Ocado Technology, jClarity, Delphix, LJC, GoDaddy, Microsoft Azure, OpenLab, IBM, Joyent, Linaro, Github, Cloudflare, Inspira, Azul Systems, Macincloud, DigitalOcean, snyk, Scaleway, Localize
Even some building their own JDK

👉 Users (production environment):

Aipsafe, alamon, bol.com, Delphix, etnetera, fream, GoDaddy, IBM, Ideati, Inspira, JClarity, Karakun, Lucee, Microfocus, mongoDB, MyView, Ocado Technology, ortus solutions, betfair, Pivotal

👉 Strong community:

170 millions downloads

👉 TSC architecture

tons of repos
at the top: the steering committee composed of 3 folk from IBM, 3 folks from Microsoft, 1 from Red Hat, 1 from Karakun, 1 from University of Zurich and one more.
Below, there are the infrastructure group, build group, testing group, website group, security group

👉AdoptOpenJDK flow:

We got the OpenJDK source code, we choose the batch to build from, we apply any of our own changes
We have a build/test/deploy pipelines
That pipeline goes from a humongous battery of tests

👉 AdoptOpenJDK Tests, at least:

Functional: 20 000 tests
openjdk: 6600 tests
system: 25 000 tests
external: 8+ apps, 4 microprofile TCKs, 50 000 container tests
performance: 6+ benchmarks (micro & full suites)

Even other JDK vendors use these tests on their JDK, which is fantastic

👉 AdoptOpenJDK becomes Eclipse Adoptium

https://adoptopenjdk.net/Help drive the future

https://projects.eclipse.org/projects/adoptium

Conclusion: Java is STILL FREE