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: 624

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

JEP 526 Simplifies Deferred Initialization Ahead of JDK 26

JEP 526 introduces Lazy Constants for JDK 26, enhancing developer ergonomics and performance. This feature replaces the earlier Stable Values, simplifying initialization while ensuring thread safety and immutability. With utilities for lazy lists and maps, it promotes efficient resource management, reducing startup costs. Feedback is welcomed to refine this API ahead of a potential future release.

By A N M Bazlur Rahman

Google Introduces Nano Banana Pro with Grounded, Multimodal Image Synthesis

Google has released Nano Banana Pro. The system moves beyond conventional diffusion workflows by tightly coupling image generation with Gemini’s multimodal reasoning stack. The result: visuals that are not only aesthetically pleasing, but structurally, contextually, and informationally accurate.

By Robert Krzaczyński

Presentation: Empathy Driven Platforms: You Build It, Let’s Run It Together

Erin Doyle explains the evolution from siloed IT Ops to the Platform Team model, revealing why the "You Build It, You Run It" principle created new cognitive load. She shares the Empathy-Driven Platforms strategy - the ultimate attack against engineering roadblocks. Discover ways platform teams can build empathy, foster psychological safety, and adopt a product mindset.

By Erin Doyle

Accessibility with Interactive Components at React Advanced Conf

Dynamic React speaker Aurora Scharff captivated attendees at React Advanced 2025 with her talk on "Building Interactive Async UI with React 19 and Ariakit." She showcased ARIAKit, an open-source accessibility library that empowers developers to create WCAG-compliant components effortlessly, blending modern React patterns with customizable, accessible UI primitives.

By Daniel Curtis

Podcast: Looking for Root Causes is a False Path: A Conversation with David Blank-Edelman

In this podcast, Michael Stiefel spoke with David Blank-Edelman about the relationship between software architecture and site reliability engineering. Site reliability engineering can give architecture vital feedback about how the system actually behaves in production. Architects and designers can then learn from their failures to improve their ability to build systems that can evolve.

By David Blank-Edelman

© 2025   Created by Michael Levin.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service