Changelog

Java 8

Release type: LTS - March 2014 - July 2019/July 2022

Features

  • Language-level support for lambda expressions (closures) and Default methods on interfaces (JSR 335, JEP 126)

  • Project Nashorn, a JavaScript runtime which allows developers to embed JavaScript code within applications

    (JSR 223 and JEP 174)

  • Annotation on Java types (JSR 308 and JEP 104)

  • Unsigned integer arithmetic

  • Repeating annotations (JSR 337, JEP 120)

  • Date and time API (JSR 310 and JEP 150)

  • Statically-linked JNI libraries (JEP 178)

  • Launch JavaFX applications (direct launching of JavaFX application JARs) (JEP 153)

  • Remove the permanent generation (JEP 122)

Java 9

Release type: non-LTS - September 2017 - March 2018

  • Modularization of the JDK under Project Jigsaw (Java Platform Module System) (JSR 376)

  • JShell: The Java Shell (a Java REPL) (JEP 222)

  • Ahead-of-time compilation (JEP 295)

  • XML catalogs (JEP 268)

  • Java implementation of Reactive Streams, including a new Flow class that included the interfaces previously provided by Reactive Streams (JEP 266)

  • Variable handles: define a standard means to invoke the equivalents of various java.util.concurrent.atomic and sun.misc.Unsafe operations (JEP 193)

  • jlink: The Java Linker: create a tool that can assemble and optimize a set of modules and their dependencies into a custom run-time image. It effectively allows to produce a fully usable executable including the JVM to run it (JEP 282)

  • JavaDB was removed from JDK

  • HiDPI graphics: automatic scaling and sizing (JEP 263)

  • Compact Strings (JEP 254)

  • Milling Project Coin (JEP 213)

    • Allow @SafeVarargs on private instance methods

    • Allow effectively-final variables to be used as resources in the try-with-resources statement

    • Allow diamond with anonymous classes if the argument type of the inferred type is denotable

    • Complete the removal, begun in Java SE 8, of underscore from the set of legal identifier names

    • Support for private methods in interfaces (proposal)

Java 10

Release type: non-LTS - March 2018 - September 2018

  • Local-variable type inference (JEP 286)

  • Experimental Java-based JIT compiler. This is the integration of the Graal dynamic compiler for the Linux x64 platform (JEP 317)

  • Application class-data sharing. This allows application classes to be placed in the shared archive to reduce startup and footprint for Java applications (JEP 310)

  • Time-based release versioning (JEP 322)

  • Parallel full GC for G1 (JEP 307)

  • Garbage-collector interface (JEP 304)

  • Additional Unicode language-tag extensions (JEP 314)

  • Root certificates (JEP 319)

  • Thread-local handshakes (JEP 312)

  • Heap allocation on alternative memory devices (JEP 316)

  • Remove the native-header generation tool (JEP 313)

  • Consolidate the JDK forest into a single repository (JEP 296)

Java 11

Release type: LTS - September 2018 - September 2023

  • Dynamic class-file constants (JEP 309)

  • Epsilon: a no-op garbage collector (experimental) (JEP 318)

  • Local-variable syntax for lambda parameters (JEP 323)

  • Low-overhead heap profiling (JEP 331)

  • HTTP client (standard) (JEP 321)

  • Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.3 (JEP 332)

  • Flight recorder (JEP 328)

  • ZGC: a scalable low-latency garbage collector (Experimental) (JEP 333)

  • JavaFX, Java EE and CORBA modules have been removed from JDK

  • Deprecated the Nashorn JavaScript engine (JEP 335)

  • Unicode 10.0.0 support (while current version is Unicode 11.0.0, it's only in Java 12)

  • A number of features from previous releases were dropped; in particular, Java applets and Java Web Start are no longer available.

Java 12

Release type: non-LTS - March 2019 - September 2019

  • Shenandoah: A Low-Pause-Time Garbage Collector (Experimental) (JEP 189)

  • Microbenchmark Suite (JEP 230)

  • Switch Expressions (Preview) (JEP 325)

  • JVM Constants API (JEP 334)

  • One AArch64 Port, Not Two (JEP 340)

  • Default CDS Archives (JEP 341)

  • Abortable Mixed Collections for G1 (JEP 344)

  • Promptly Return Unused Committed Memory from G1 (JEP 346)

Java 13

Release type: non-LTS - September 2019 - March 2020

  • Dynamic CDS Archives (JEP-350)

  • ZGC: Uncommit Unused Memory (JEP-351)

  • Reimplement the Legacy Socket API (JEP-353)

  • Switch Expressions (Preview) (JEP-354)

  • Text Blocks (Preview) (JEP-355)

Java 14

Release type: non-LTS - March 2020 - September 2020

  • Pattern Matching for instanceof (Preview) (JEP-305)

  • Packaging Tool (Incubator) (JEP-343)

  • NUMA-Aware Memory Allocation for G1 (JEP-345)

  • JFR Event Streaming (JEP-349)

  • Non-Volatile Mapped Byte Buffers (JEP-352)

  • Helpful NullPointerExceptions (JEP-358)

  • Records (Preview) (JEP-359)

  • Switch Expressions (Standard) (JEP-361)

  • Deprecate the Solaris and SPARC Ports (JEP-362)

  • Remove the Concurrent Mark Sweep (CMS) Garbage Collector (JEP-363)

  • ZGC on macOS (JEP-364)

  • ZGC on Windows (JEP-365)

  • Deprecate the ParallelScavenge + SerialOld GC Combination (JEP-366:)

  • Remove the Pack200 Tools and API (JEP-367)

  • Text Blocks (Second Preview) (JEP-368)

  • Foreign-Memory Access API (Incubator) (JEP-370)

Java 15

Release type: non-LTS - September 2020 - March 2021

Java 16

Java 17

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