Accelerating the JDK LTS release cadence

[Volker Simonis]

On Tue, Sep 14, 2021 at 4:31 PM <mark.reinhold at oracle.com> wrote:
>
> 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?
>

Hi Mark,

this is an interesting proposal which definitely requires some
in-depth discussion.

One of the points which are not completely clear to me from your blog
and Oracle's Java 17 Press Release [1] is how Oracle plans to
contribute to the JDK Updates Project in the future?

In [1], Oracle writes:

"Oracle JDK 17 and future JDK releases are provided under a
free-to-use license until a full year after the next LTS release.
Oracle will also continue providing Oracle OpenJDK releases under the
open-source General Public License (GPL), as it has since 2017."

>From this sentence it is not clear to me if Oracle OpenJDK releases
under GPL will also be provided by Oracle "until a full year after the
next LTS release". Moreover, it is unclear if Oracle will only act for
6 month as Maintainer of the corresponding LTS update release in the
JDK Updates Project (as it currently does for feature releases) or if
it plans to extend its commitment as Maintainer of LTS update releases
up to "until a full year after the next LTS release"?

I would obviously greatly welcome Oracles decision to increase its
engagement in the JDK Updates Project and I'm sure that such a
decision will positively influence the reactions of the community for
your proposal :)

So can you please shed some light on Oracle's future plans regarding
the involvement in the JDK Updates Project if your new LTS release
cadence proposal will be accepted by the community?

Thank you and best regards,
Volker

[1] https://www.oracle.com/news/announcement/oracle-releases-java-17-2021-09-14/
> - 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/