Accelerating the JDK LTS release cadence

[mark.reinhold at oracle.com]

Over on my blog today I’ve proposed shifting the JDK LTS release cadence
from three years to two years:

  https://mreinhold.org/blog/forward-even-faster

The LTS release following JDK 17 would thus be JDK 21 (in 2023), rather
than JDK 23 (in 2024).

This change would, if accepted, have no effect on the main-line feature
releases developed in the JDK Project [1].  Every such release is
intended to be stable and ready for production use, whether it’s an LTS
release or not [2].

This change would, however, affect the update releases produced in the
JDK Updates Project [3].  That Project would have to take on a new LTS
release line every two years rather than three, which would be more work,
and also decide for how long to maintain each line.

This change would also affect vendors who offer paid support for LTS
releases, whether or not they participate in the JDK Updates Project.

Given the potential to accelerate the entire Java ecosystem, however,
in my view the additional work would be well justified.

Comments?  Questions?

- Mark


[1] https://openjdk.java.net/projects/jdk/
[2] https://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/jdk-dev/2021-May/005543.html
[3] https://openjdk.java.net/projects/jdk-updates/