Java Versions

JDK Versions

The various JDK versions are:

  1. JDK Alpha and Beta (1995): Sun announced Java in September 23, 1995.
  2. JDK 1.0 (January 23, 1996): Originally called Oak (named after the oak tree outside James Gosling's office). Renamed to Java 1 in JDK 1.0.2.
  3. JDK 1.1 (February 19, 1997): Introduced AWT event model, inner class, JavaBean, JDBC, and RMI.
  4. J2SE 1.2 (JDK 1.2) (December 8, 1998): Re-branded as "Java 2" and renamed JDK to J2SE (Java 2 Standard Edition). Also released J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition) and J2ME (Java 2 Micro Edition). Included JFC (Java Foundation Classes - Swing, Accessibility API, Java 2D, Pluggable Look and Feel and Drag and Drop). Introduced Collection Framework and JIT compiler.
  5. J2SE 1.3 (JDK 1.3) (May 8, 2000): Introduced Hotspot JVM.
  6. J2SE 1.4 (JDK 1.4) (February 6, 2002): Introduced assert, non-blocking IO (nio), logging API, image IO, Java webstart, regular expression support.
  7. J2SE 5.0 (JDK 1.5) (September 30, 2004): Officially called 5.0 instead of 1.5. Introduced generics, autoboxing/unboxing, annotation, enum, varargs, for-each loop, static import.
  8. Java SE 6 (JDK 1.6) (December 11, 2006): Renamed J2SE to Java SE (Java Standard Edition).
  9. Java SE 7 (JDK 1.7) (July 28, 2011): First version after Oracle purchased Sun (called Oracle JDK).
  10. Java SE 8 (JDK 1.8) (March 18, 2014): included support for Lambda expressions, default and static methods in interfaces, improved collection, and JavaScript runtime. Also integrated JavaFX graphics subsystem.
  11. Java SE 9 (JDK 9) (September 21, 2017): introduced modularization of the JDK (module) under project Jigsaw, the Java Shell (jshell), and more.
  12. Java SE 10 (18.3) (JDK 10) (March, 2018): introduced var for type inference local variable (similar to JavaScript). There will be 2 releases each year, in March and September, denoted as yy.m.
  13. Java SE 11 (18.9 LTS) (JDK 11) (September, 2018): extended var to lambda expression. Standardize HTTP client in java.net.http. Support TLS 1.3. Clean up the JDK and the installation package.

Views: 637

Comment

You need to be a member of Codetown to add comments!

Join Codetown

Happy 10th year, JCertif!

Notes

Welcome to Codetown!

Codetown is a social network. It's got blogs, forums, groups, personal pages and more! You might think of Codetown as a funky camper van with lots of compartments for your stuff and a great multimedia system, too! Best of all, Codetown has room for all of your friends.

When you create a profile for yourself you get a personal page automatically. That's where you can be creative and do your own thing. People who want to get to know you will click on your name or picture and…
Continue

Created by Michael Levin Dec 18, 2008 at 6:56pm. Last updated by Michael Levin May 4, 2018.

Looking for Jobs or Staff?

Check out the Codetown Jobs group.

 

Enjoy the site? Support Codetown with your donation.



InfoQ Reading List

Anthropic Releases and Temporarily Suspends Claude Fable 5

On June 9, 2026, Anthropic launched Claude Fable 5, a model designed for long-horizon tasks, but it was taken offline shortly after due to a U.S. government export directive. It shares architecture with Claude Mythos 5, supporting extensive token usage. The model includes mandatory data retention requirements, which have affected its deployment with partners like Microsoft.

By Andrew Hoblitzell

Spring Boot 4.1 Adds gRPC Auto-Configuration, SSRF Mitigation, and Kotlin 2.3 Support

Broadcom released Spring Boot 4.1 on June 10, 2026, to deliver gRPC auto-configuration, HTTP-client SSRF mitigation, and upgrades to Kotlin 2.3. It also brings lazy datasource connections, async context propagation for @Async methods, and improved OpenTelemetry support. Uncharacteristically, Broadcom moved the releases twice, first from May 11-22 to June 1-5, then to June 8-12.

By Karsten Silz

Vercel Labs Open-Sources Zero-Native: A Zig-Based Cross-Platform Native Application Framework

Vercel Labs recently open-sourced zero-native, a cross-platform framework for native desktop applications. Zero-native bypasses Electron runtime in favor or native OS WebViews and claims to achieve smaller, more efficient native apps with minimal overhead. Zero-native is written in Zig, thus directly interoperates with native C libraries, and features fast incremental compilation times.

By Bruno Couriol

AWS Introduces Durable Storage Option for ElastiCache for Valkey

AWS has recently introduced durability for Amazon ElastiCache for Valkey, enabling reliable data retention across failures and expanding support beyond caching to persistent workloads. The feature offers new options that prioritize either minimizing data loss or maintaining lower write latency, expanding the range of use cases supported by the Redis fork.

By Renato Losio

Terraform MCP Server Enables AI Assistants to Interact with Terraform Infrastructure

HashiCorp has announced the general availability of the Terraform MCP Server, an open-source MCP server that enables agents to integrate with Terraform Registry APIs. The company says that it can improve infrastructure teams productivity by relieving engineers of rote tasks.

By Sergio De Simone

© 2026   Created by Michael Levin.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service