Accelerating the JDK LTS release cadence

[Peter Lawrey]

Hi,
   Java 11 to 17 seemed like a long time and we ended up supporting a
pseudo LTS version Java 14 in between.
A two years gap seems better. I assume Java 18, 19, and 20 will be just the
short term supported status. i.e. nothing special about 19.

Is there any particular reason September happens to be when LTS are
occurring?

Regards,
   Peter.

On Tue, 14 Sept 2021 at 15:31, <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?
>
> - 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/
>