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: 631

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

Article: Building Hierarchical Agentic RAG Systems: Multi-Modal Reasoning with Autonomous Error Recovery

In this article, the author explores how hierarchical agentic RAG systems coordinate specialized workers through structured orchestration to improve accuracy, reliability, and explainability in complex enterprise analytics workflows. The article uses Protocol-H as a to show how deterministic routing, reflective retry, and modality-aware reasoning support safer multi-source query execution.

By Abhijit Ubale

Aspire 13.2 Released with Expanded CLI, TypeScript AppHost Preview, and Dashboard Improvements

Aspire 13.2 brings expanded CLI with detached mode and process management, TypeScript AppHost support in preview, dashboard telemetry export and import, stable Docker Compose publishing, Microsoft Foundry integration, Azure Virtual Network support, and a major VS Code extension update. The release also includes several breaking changes to configuration files and resource commands.

By Almir Vuk

Google Brings MCP Support to Colab, Enabling Cloud Execution for AI Agents

Google has released the open-source Colab MCP Server, enabling AI agents to directly interact with Google Colab through the Model Context Protocol (MCP). The project is designed to bridge local agent workflows with cloud-based execution, allowing developers to offload compute-intensive or potentially unsafe tasks from their own machines.

By Robert Krzaczyński

Tailwind CSS 4.2 Ships Webpack Plugin, New Palettes and Logical Property Utilities

Tailwind CSS version 4.2.0, released on February 18, 2026, includes a webpack plugin for streamlined integration and four new color palettes. It expands logical property utilities and improves recompilation speed by 3.8x. This update is particularly beneficial for teams on existing projects and those developing multilingual applications.

By Daniel Curtis

Cloudflare and ETH Zurich Outline Approaches for AI-Driven Cache Optimization

Cloudflare and ETH Zurich highlight how AI-driven crawler traffic challenges traditional caching in CDNs and databases. They propose AI-aware strategies including separate cache tiers, adaptive algorithms, and pay-per-crawl models to balance performance for human users and AI services while maintaining cache efficiency and system stability.

By Leela Kumili

© 2026   Created by Michael Levin.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service