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: 623

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

Spring Framework 7 and Spring Boot 4 Deliver API Versioning, Resilience, and Null-Safe Annotations

Broadcom released Spring Framework 7.0 and Spring Boot 4.0, introducing first-class REST API versioning, JSpecify annotations for standardized null safety across the Spring portfolio, built-in resilience features such as retry and concurrency throttling, Jackson 3 for JSON processing, and modular autoconfiguration. The baselines are JDK 17 (while embracing JDK 25), Jakarta EE 11, and Kotlin 2.2.

By Karsten Silz

After Seven Years, Google Reinvents Android Navigation with Jetpack Navigation 3

Google has released the new Jetpack Navigation 3 library, which redesigns from the ground up notification handling in Android apps. The new library gives full control on the back stack and integrates seamlessly with Jetpack Compose's state management.

By Sergio De Simone

QConSF 2025 - Developing Claude Code at Anthropic at AI Speed

At QCon San Francisco 2025, Adam Wolff showcased Claude Code at Anthropic, where AI powers 90% of production code. With a focus on speed over planning, Claude Code's design evolved through experimentation, addressing challenges like Unicode issues and shell command bottlenecks. Discover successful iterations and lessons learned in real-time software development.

By Andrew Hoblitzell

Google Announces Gemini 3

Google's Gemini 3, unveiled on November 18, 2025, sets a new standard for multimodal AI, integrating seamlessly across platforms like Search and Vertex AI. With capabilities for text, code, and rich media, it empowers both consumer and enterprise applications. Gemini 3 Pro and its advanced Deep Think mode enhance reasoning and task execution, revolutionizing workflows and analytics.

By Andrew Hoblitzell

Presentation: The Architecture of Developer Experience: Where Product, Platform, and Operations Meet

The panelists discuss designing platform architecture where product, platform, and operations meet. Experts share best practices for reducing cognitive load, balancing core ops vs. innovation, measuring success (lead time, cost avoidance), and enabling developers through self-service and golden path deviations.

By Ran Isenberg, Garima Bajpai, Stephane DiCesare, Martin Reynolds, Renato Losio

© 2025   Created by Michael Levin.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service