What does LTS mean for OpenJDK?

[Andrew Haley]

On 09/06/2018 11:54 PM, Ed Munoz wrote:
> The responses on this thread have helped to clarify the situation regarding OpenJDK 11 and later. (Thank you!)

> I have similar questions regarding OpenJDK 8.

>> A similar transition [of maintainers] would also happen for OpenJDK
>> 8 Updates after January 2019, assuming that a suitable Project Lead
>> steps forward to carry on the maintenance work led by Oracle
>> developers since 2014.

> Questions:

> 1) Are there one or more parties willing to step forward to assume
> the role of maintainer for JDK 8 after Oracle steps down as
> maintainer? For example, Red Hat has said it may step forward to be
> the maintainer for JDK 11 - might it also step forward to be the
> maintainer for JDK 8?

Yes.

> 2) Will Oracle's expected announcement on "End of maintenance &
> invitation for new maintainers" for JDK 8 be posted on this
> (jdk-dev) mailing list? Or on jdk8u-dev? It would be helpful to know
> where and when to watch for it.

> 3) What platforms will be maintained for JDK 8 after the new
> maintainer steps in? If this is not yet known, when can we expect to
> get clarification on this? Will it be the same platforms as are
> currently supported? Or are some platform changes expected? Will
> Win32 still be supported?

I expect most platforms will continue to be the same, but I don't know
about Windows 32. I'd personally like to see Windows 32 support end,
but there may still be some interest. Mainstream support for Windows 7
ended a long time ago; extended support for Windows 7 ends at the
beginning of 2020. Microsoft just announced an extension for bulk
customers with deep pockets, so who knows. Are many of them likely to
be 32 bit?

> 4) How long will JDK 8 be maintained? A Red Hat site lists June
> 2023, referring to JDK support in
> RHEL. https://access.redhat.com/articles/1299013 The AdoptOpenJDK
> site lists September 2022. https://adoptopenjdk.net/support.html
> When do we expect to have a more definite sense of how long OpenJDK
> 8 security updates will be available for the various platforms that
> OpenJDK supports?

AdoptOpenJDK can provide binaries for as long as they want to: it
doesn't affect the jdk8u project. June 2023 is right for JDK 8, but I
wouldn't be surprised if it goes on beyond that.

> 5) Let's expand Jack Shirazi's post about JDK 11 support to include
> JDK 8. Is this a reasonable statement of what is expected to happen
> with security updates?

> Assume it is less than 6 months since the release of JDK 12 (say,
> July 2019), and Oracle announces a security update to Java.
> 
> - Oracle would apply that to their paid-for Oracle Java 12 build
> (and possibly to some paid-for Oracle Java back versions).
> 
> - Oracle would also apply it to the OpenJDK Java 12 build.
> 
> - Oracle would NOT apply it the latest OpenJDK Java 11 build.

That sounds about right.

> - The jdk11u project WILL backport that to the OpenJDK Java 11 build.

Yes,

> - AdoptOpenJDK will provide builds of that Java 11 upgraded version,
> so that upgraded OpenJDK Java 11 build will be available for public
> consumption.

I don't know what AdoptOpenJDK would do with their builds, but I
presume so.

> - The jdk8u project WILL backport that to the OpenJDK Java 8 build.

If applicable, yes.

> - AdoptOpenJDK will provide builds of that Java 8 upgraded version,
> so that upgraded OpenJDK Java 8 build will be available for public
> consumption.
Let's talk about binaries. If you're using any kind of a Linux/GNU
system you'll want to use your distro's packages and update manager,
so we don't need to talk about Linux.

Binary downloads, are, therefore only really relevant to Windows and
(perhaps) Macintosh. I want the future updates project(s) to produce
official Windows binaries (perhaps built and tested jointly with
AdoptOpenJDK, but we haven't decided) and I'd like to see Macintosh
binaries too.

-- 
Andrew Haley
Java Platform Lead Engineer
Red Hat UK Ltd. <https://www.redhat.com>
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