Java 9 - Have you switched? Not? Do not need ...!?

Two weeks ago, InfoQ recalled that the official support for Java 9 is ending ... in March 2018. (i.e. after 20 days :)

Here is a link to the official EOL from Oracle, in which in the section "Java SE Public Updates" black in English says that Java 9 will be supported until March 2018 , and Java 8 - until January 2019 (or later) and December 2020 (or later) .

Phew how many interesting ...
Why do java 8 have two dates? What does mysterious (or later) mean? And what the hell, it all means to us - the developers.

Why do java 8 have two dates?
Explanations for the second date are a bit vague and do not allow us to forget how Oracle works from the inside .

Oracle does not need to migrate from Java 8 to later versions. Individuals who need to support the JRE with their applications. More details will be made available through early 2018.

Let's break down this paragraph line by line because it's worth it.

Oracle does not plan to upgrade workstations from Java 8 to later versions through the auto update option.

Do not need. Does someone have this thing "turned on"? I do not know any such :)

Individuals who require Java SE for use on non-corporate workstations will receive updates (via auto update) at least until December 2020.

Those. if you forget how it is "evil" to disable it for another year will remind you of yourself. And what will happen if after January 2019 Java 8 remains on the installed on the "corporate" workstation?

We ask application developers to ship the JRE along with the applications instead of relying on the preinstalled JRE.

The meaning is vague, but most likely we are talking about renegades who write client-side applications under the JRE and assume that the JRE already exists on the computer and it is the latest version.

In more detail we will tell about it in the beginning of 2018.

WHAT!? What do you smoke there ...

I read this paragraph as

We have a lot of free lawyers and if you put a new Java 8 latest update in December, December 2018, we will come to you.
But this is not yet accurate.

I have repeatedly heard from American acquaintances about Oracle’s attempts to verify compliance with licensing agreements around Java technologies (including when using commercial components , deploying through Docker with an “automatic” agreement on a licensing agreement, etc.)

Java 9 - the evil that we have been waiting for?
The clue lies in the "Oracle Java SE Support Roadmap *" section (note the link in the section title - it is explained that all dates are given "for example" - in short, the next legal "excuses").

What we called Java 9 (as well as Java 10, which has not even come out yet :) - these are “intermediate” non-LTS versions of Java with a lifetime of 7 months. The closest Java LTS release will be Java 11 (18.9 LTS), which will be released in September 2018.

It seems to me that Java 9 and Java 10 are the versions "from developers to developers": the new GC, jigsaw, API, and even some sugar. Use this all, develop, but, if possible, do not use up to 18.9 LTS aka Java 11 productively.

Such cases, colleagues. And what versions of JVM do you have now in productive operation?

PS In the end, it seems that Java 9 and Java 10 are almost what we recently called release candidates.