New company will support OpenJDK 8 and 11 - we understand the situation
Oracle stops supporting older versions of OpenJDK for corporate customers. But in this post, the company will be replaced by Red Hat. We discuss the reasons for the decision and public opinion.
/ Pixabay / Tasos_Lekkas / PL
In January 2019, Oracle stopped free support for OpenJDK 8 and 11 for corporate clients. Now security updates for older versions of the platform can be obtained only with a paid subscription to Oracle Java SE Advanced and Java SE Suite. For individual users, updates will be available until 2020.
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The situation has troubled the IT community. The biggest concerns are Java 8, which still remains the most popular version of the software platform. For example, it is used by the developers of Minecraft and is actively used in cloud environments . The Oracle solution, according to security experts, can cause serious damage to the security of the Java ecosystem.
The way out was suggested in Red Hat. The IT giant took responsibility for the updates to OpenJDK 8 and 11. The company will support them until 2023 and 2024, respectively.
The history of RedHat and OpenJDK dates back to 2007. Then the platform was not completely open - about 5% of the code was borrowed from third-party applications. Red Hat decided to correct the misunderstanding and, together with Sun Microsystems (now Oracle), launched the IcedTea project . His goal is to remove all proprietary code from the OpenJDK codebase.
A year later, OpenJDK came out in open source, and Red Hat started using it in their products. Since then, the IT giant has continued to participate in the design and development of the platform. From recent updates, the company has proposed to include Shenandoah's garbage collection algorithm in Java to increase performance.
Red Hat is also connected with OpenJDK by the fact that one of the technical managers of this open source project, Andrew Haley, works for the corporation. In Red Hat, he manages a team of Java developers. Earlier haley
"Intercepted" projects of Oracle - he was responsible for OpenJDK 6 and 7. The "lifetime" of the sixth version has already come to an end, and the support of the seventh version will stop next year ( Table 1 ). Therefore, Red Hat has the experience and resources to oversee OpenJDK 8 and 11.
According to analysts, the Red Hat solution is important in terms of information security. As we have said, many companies could be left without patches to protect their applications and services. Literally before the announcement of Oracle about the termination of corporate support, the platform received a security update , which fixed 254 bugs.
Andrew Haley also opposes the over-commercialization of OpenJDK and believes that users of older versions should have the right to receive the necessary updates free of charge. While the companies are still switching to Java 8 .
But there is also the opposite opinion - older versions of Java do not benefit the IT community. A number of experts are convinced that organizations generally need to replace Java with more modern technologies: Python, JavaScript and Node.js.
/ Pxhere / pd
Earlier, Oracle declined to support the Java EE (Enterprise Edition) specification set, which describes the architecture of a server platform for medium and large enterprises. The rights to the project in 2017 were transferred to the non-profit organization Eclipse Foundation and now the platform is called Jakarta EE.
The Eclipse Foundation updates older versions of Enterprise Edition products and extends their functionality. For example, in the beginning of 2019, an update of the GlassFish server was released , to which compatibility with Java 8 was added. In the future, the organization plans to integrate Jakarta EE with other popular open source technologies - Docker, Kubernetes, NoSQL.
Another example is the JavaFX platform. It is designed to create mobile and desktop applications with a rich graphical interface. In 2018, JavaFX was isolated as a separate module and removed from OpenJDK. Gluon decided to support the platform. Recently, the organization released the 12th version of Java FX - it added new features for Android applications related to WebView. Gluon plans to continue to update the product.
Red Hat expects Java to live for another 20-30 years. It can be expected that the corporation will continue to support the old versions of OpenJDK and will remain one of its main supporters.
/ Pixabay / Tasos_Lekkas / PL
Changing of the Guard
In January 2019, Oracle stopped free support for OpenJDK 8 and 11 for corporate clients. Now security updates for older versions of the platform can be obtained only with a paid subscription to Oracle Java SE Advanced and Java SE Suite. For individual users, updates will be available until 2020.
')
The situation has troubled the IT community. The biggest concerns are Java 8, which still remains the most popular version of the software platform. For example, it is used by the developers of Minecraft and is actively used in cloud environments . The Oracle solution, according to security experts, can cause serious damage to the security of the Java ecosystem.
The way out was suggested in Red Hat. The IT giant took responsibility for the updates to OpenJDK 8 and 11. The company will support them until 2023 and 2024, respectively.
Why the project is interesting Red Hat
The history of RedHat and OpenJDK dates back to 2007. Then the platform was not completely open - about 5% of the code was borrowed from third-party applications. Red Hat decided to correct the misunderstanding and, together with Sun Microsystems (now Oracle), launched the IcedTea project . His goal is to remove all proprietary code from the OpenJDK codebase.
A year later, OpenJDK came out in open source, and Red Hat started using it in their products. Since then, the IT giant has continued to participate in the design and development of the platform. From recent updates, the company has proposed to include Shenandoah's garbage collection algorithm in Java to increase performance.
Red Hat is also connected with OpenJDK by the fact that one of the technical managers of this open source project, Andrew Haley, works for the corporation. In Red Hat, he manages a team of Java developers. Earlier haley
"Intercepted" projects of Oracle - he was responsible for OpenJDK 6 and 7. The "lifetime" of the sixth version has already come to an end, and the support of the seventh version will stop next year ( Table 1 ). Therefore, Red Hat has the experience and resources to oversee OpenJDK 8 and 11.
Opinions
According to analysts, the Red Hat solution is important in terms of information security. As we have said, many companies could be left without patches to protect their applications and services. Literally before the announcement of Oracle about the termination of corporate support, the platform received a security update , which fixed 254 bugs.
“Many companies are faced with a choice: to pay for a previously free product or switch from Java to something else,” commented Sergey Belkin, head of the development department at 1cloud.ru . “The Red Hat initiative will give a break to users of older versions of OpenJDK and allow you to make an informed decision.”
Andrew Haley also opposes the over-commercialization of OpenJDK and believes that users of older versions should have the right to receive the necessary updates free of charge. While the companies are still switching to Java 8 .
But there is also the opposite opinion - older versions of Java do not benefit the IT community. A number of experts are convinced that organizations generally need to replace Java with more modern technologies: Python, JavaScript and Node.js.
/ Pxhere / pd
Who else is involved in java
Earlier, Oracle declined to support the Java EE (Enterprise Edition) specification set, which describes the architecture of a server platform for medium and large enterprises. The rights to the project in 2017 were transferred to the non-profit organization Eclipse Foundation and now the platform is called Jakarta EE.
The Eclipse Foundation updates older versions of Enterprise Edition products and extends their functionality. For example, in the beginning of 2019, an update of the GlassFish server was released , to which compatibility with Java 8 was added. In the future, the organization plans to integrate Jakarta EE with other popular open source technologies - Docker, Kubernetes, NoSQL.
Another example is the JavaFX platform. It is designed to create mobile and desktop applications with a rich graphical interface. In 2018, JavaFX was isolated as a separate module and removed from OpenJDK. Gluon decided to support the platform. Recently, the organization released the 12th version of Java FX - it added new features for Android applications related to WebView. Gluon plans to continue to update the product.
Conclusion
Red Hat expects Java to live for another 20-30 years. It can be expected that the corporation will continue to support the old versions of OpenJDK and will remain one of its main supporters.
What we write about in the corporate blog:
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/450040/
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