It is 2021, and the Java landscape has changed yet again. Java 17 LTS landed on the 14th of September and has brought much excitement to the JVM community one more time. Besides this, the Java community is also enjoying many other exciting changes. Not only has Oracle made an about-turn in how they license their JDKs, but the AdoptOpenJDK project has also undergone some profound changes. Let’s look at both of these in turn.
With the release of JDK 17, Oracle has put aside their Binary Code License Agreement and instead made the new JDK available under an Oracle No-Fee Terms And Conditions License. They have also removed the mandatory restriction of accepting their license agreement before downloading the binary. This change in direction will significantly impact those who rely on scripted or automated solutions to download their JDKs. For this reason, SDKMAN will once more be able to offer the Oracle JDKs as an alternative to all the other available options. We will be rolling out the Oracle JDK 17 on SDKMAN shortly.
Another significant change that has swept across the Java developer community is the dissolution of the AdoptOpenJDK project. This project has become the most popular binary choice for Java devs and was the default distribution on SDKMAN for several years. The truth is that AdoptOpenJDK is not going away but rather moving under the Eclipse umbrella as the Adoptium Working Group. Furthermore, they will only be supporting the vendor-neutral HotSpot variant of the JDK, now branded as Eclipse Temurin.
Many will also remember that AdoptOpenJDK had an openj9 variant of the JDK, formerly know as IBM J9. The openj9 project was previously moved to Eclipse but has now moved back to IBM, with the JDK distribution now branded as IBM Semeru. Once again, this distribution will no longer be available under AdoptOpenJDK, but you can install it as Semeru on SDKMAN.
Meanwhile, we will continue to serve the AdoptOpenJDK binaries, although they will no longer be updated. We have also made Temurin JDK 17 our new default distribution and will keep tracking this LTS version as our default. We will strive to keep the latest and all historic AdoptOpenJDK binaries live as long as possible.
If you would like to help us shape the future of SDKMAN in delivering fresh JDKs, please drop by to chat with us on our community Slack. We are always happy to hear from our users and want to make SDKMAN better for everyone. We also love your contributions, so please keep the PRs and feedback coming!
