What does LTS mean for OpenJDK?

Sun Aug 19 19:03:57 UTC 2018

Thanks Mark, Andrew, Martijn,

Its good to see things coming together. Having $free pre-built Java 11
binaries for at least 3 years from at least one source is key to the
success of the ecosystem going forward.

If I understand correctly there will be no public $free Oracle JDK for
11 at all. As such developers will be using the OpenJDK build at
http://jdk.java.net . I think this is fine, although it will surprise
some no doubt.

However, this is only during the first 6 months of Java 11. After that
developers wanting the $free 11 binaries have to go to some other
site. This inconsistency (changing where to find the download) does
not seem great to me Would an OpenJDK equivalent of
http://jdk.java.net clearly attached to and linked from OpenJDK itself
be a suitable solution to the problem?

thanks
Stephen

On Sat, 18 Aug 2018 at 10:15, Martijn Verburg <martijnverburg at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> I'll add AdoptOpenJDK's Positioning on this inline.
>
> On Fri, 17 Aug 2018 at 18:33, Andrew Haley <aph at redhat.com> wrote:
>>
>> 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.
>
>
> Completely agree with this and in a way this is positive thing for OpenJDK.  I see a lot more organisations and
> individuals now committing, or seriously thinking about committing extra engineering folks and $$ into OpenJDK.
> I think it's fair to say that Oracle has shouldered the majority of the burden (thanks Oracle!) for a long time and it'll be
> good for everyone if that burden is shared more evenly than it has been.
>
> As part of the discussions Andrew mentioned, AdoptOpenJDK offered to build, test and make available OpenJDK
> LTS binaries for the major (and several minor) platforms.  This isn't yet set in concrete but folks broadly thought that
> was a good idea.  So the challenge of having a build and test farm for this joint effort is solved.
>
> ----
> Some extra statements:
>
> AdoptOpenJDK will not offer commercial support.  AdoptOpenJDK will take and triage bug reports but will
> send those bug reports to the appropriate upstream project (OpenJDK, Eclipse OpenJ9, SAPMachine etc)
> unless it was an AdoptOpenJDK build / test / infra issue.
>
> AdoptOpenJDK *as an entity* will not be backporting patches, i.e. There won't be an AdoptOpenJDK 'fork/version'
> that is materially different from upstream (except for some build script patches for things like Win32 support). However,
> I imagine many of the volunteers (a chunk of who are OpenJDK authors / committers / reviewers) will join in the jdk11u project
> / effort that Andrew mentioned, so you'll see crossover of people.
>
> We think Andrew is the eminently sensible choice to lead jdk11u and there were more than enough organisations and individuals
> that indicated they would commit real long term engineering support. I'm personally very comfortable that we'll have a
> successful, professionally run jdk11u project from Oracle and then subsequently by others (most likely lead by Andrew).
>
> For the rest AdoptOpenJDK is adding more robustness, security and testing support to the build farm so we'll be ready when jdk11u
> requires that service. We welcome more contributors with those slightly rarer skill sets of bash scripting, ansible and other devops
> style languages and tooling.
>
>>
>> > 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.
>
>
> ---
>
> AdoptOpenJDK's current support policy is listed here: https://adoptopenjdk.net/support.html
>
> As an extra clarification, support means "We'll keep building the binaries". As mentioned previously
> AdoptOpenJDK won't as an organization be backporting patches to jdk11u, but several of our volunteers
> will be participating in that effort.
>
> I'll echo Andrew's comment that lots of folks including Oracle are heavily invested in Java. As an example,
> the AdoptOpenJDK build farm has >300 volunteers from established OpenJDK organisations as well as
> new folks who came together when they saw a need for collaborating around OpenJDK binary production.
>
> HTH - happy to answer any follow up questions.
>
> Cheers,
> Martijn
>
>>
>>
>> > 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