Oracle changed the licensing scheme in 2019, though, which caused the Internet to go crazy saying 'Java is not free anymore' - and a fair amount of confusion followed.

Up until Java 8, you were pretty much using Oracle’s JDK builds and you did not have to care about licensing.

Java 9+, certain build tools print out 'reflective access'-warnings when building Java projects, which simply 'feels not ready', even though the builds are fine.

Build tools (Maven, Gradle, etc.) and some libraries initially had bugs with versions Java versions > 8 and needed updates.

There’s a mix of different reasons companies are still stuck with Java 8. Or, you can switch to using the Kotlin programming language.

There’s the special field of Android development where the Java version is basically stuck at Java 7, with a specific set of Java 8 features available.

If you are making sure to use the very latest IDEs, frameworks, and build tools and starting a greenfield project, you can, without hesitation, use Java 11 (LTS) or even the latest Java 13.

Some legacy projects are even stuck on Java 1.5 (released 2004) or 1.6 (released 2006) - sorry, pals!.

Thus, you will be forced to use Java 8 as well.

Legacy projects in companies are often stuck using Java 8 (see the ' Why Are Companies Still Stuck On Java 8?' section below).

With that many new versions coming out, there are basically these real-world usage scenarios:

In the past, Java release cycles were much longer, up to 3-5 years!. What Java Version Should I Use?Īs of September 2019, Java 13 is the latest released Java version, with newer versions following every 6 months - Java 14 is scheduled for March 2020, Java 15 for September 2020, and so on. Then come back to this guide to and still learn a thing or two about different Java versions. If you want to learn more about a specific version, go to the AdoptOpenJDK site, choose the latest Java version, download, and install it.

You can use this guide to find and install the latest Java, understand the differences between Java distributions (AdoptOpenJdk, OpenJDK, OracleJDK, etc.), as well as get an overview of Java language features, including Java versions 8-13.įirst, let’s have a look at some common, practical questions that people have when trying to choose the right Java version for their project. Java 8, Java 11, Java 13 - what's the difference?

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