What does LTS mean for OpenJDK? (original) (raw)

Andrew Haley aph at redhat.com
Fri Aug 17 17:33:08 UTC 2018

On 08/17/2018 05:36 PM, Stephen Colebourne wrote:

The LTS (long term support) release Java 11 is nearly upon us. But what does LTS mean in the context of OpenJDK? I'd like to try to get a clear statement of fact in written form, particularly from Oracle.

I have been discussing with some other organizations sharing the burden of supporting jdk11, and we'll make a public statement when we're ready. Before then, I'll say what I can.

OpenJDK is a community project. It's up to the community to support it. In practice this means that a group of organizations and individuals will maintain each OpenJDK LTS release for some period (TBA for 11, but it's sure to be a lot longer than six months.) I am certain that there will be a jdk11u project, and it will be properly and professionally run. I think it's likely that I'll be leading the project, but someone else may be chosen. Given that we don't know when Oracle will end their support it's hard to say any more.

Java 10 has had public $free support, with two security updates over 6 months and pre-built binaries at http://jdk.java.net/10/

What will Java 11 get from Oracle? - 6 months of public $free updates with binaries published at http://jdk.java.net - 3 years of public $free updates with binaries published at http://jdk.java.net - something else? Note! The request is about $free pre-built binaries ready for download. We all know people can pay money for support to multiple vendors.

Is any other group (eg. AdoptOpenJDK, RedHat) planning on providing security patched pre-built binaries for $free? If so, for how long?

Red Hat is committed to support OpenJDK for its customers for some time. Our policy for current versions can be seen at https://access.redhat.com/articles/1299013#OpenJDK_Lifecycle_Dates_and_RHEL_versions

Given that Red Hat has an upstream first policy, we will make sure that all security patches are applied to upstream OpenJDK releases and our builds are TCK'd.

With regard to providing binaries, I'm aware that any jdkll update project after Oracle ceases to support it will need to provide binaries for several platforms. (java.net is Oracle's proprietary site, so it doesn't make any sense to put them there.) The project will decide exactly where to put those binaries, but in my opinion as long as they are properly authenticated and easy to get it doesn't really matter.

Finally, please let me assure you of one thing: whether by Oracle or Red Hat or someone else, JDK LTS releases will continue to be supported. We all have a lot invested in Java, and we won't let it fall.

Please provide links.

Hmph.

-- Andrew Haley Java Platform Lead Engineer Red Hat UK Ltd. <https://www.redhat.com> EAC8 43EB D3EF DB98 CC77 2FAD A5CD 6035 332F A671

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