Is Java 22 Released?

It's Out!

Days until Java 22 is officially released

Meet Java 24

  • Scoped Values
  • Record Patterns
  • Pattern Matching for switch
  • Foreign Function & Memory API
  • Virtual Threads
  • Structured Concurrency
Read more

Read all about Java

Java 9 to 13
Java 11 and 12 new features
Java 13 revealed
More java 17
Effective Java 3rd Edition
Modern Java in Action

Version

You can check which version of Java language you are using by running the command: 
java -version
in your terminal. This will display the version number of the Java language you are currently using.

About Java

Java is a high-level, class-based, object-oriented programming language. It is a general-purpose programming language intended to let application developers write once, run anywhere (WORA). The main purpose is to enable someone to write code that can run on any hardware on a java virtual machine.

Java was developed by Sun Microsystems in the early 90s. The entire company, and with it Java, was then bought up by the tech giant Oracle in 2010, making Java Oracle’s property.

Oracle flaunts the extreme array of uses that Java has in the modern-day. Java is being used to develop a website application, but even mobile applications, TV devices, DVD players, among many other types of external machines use software based on Java. This makes it a really popular choice for software developers all around the world, and it almost essential to know at least the basics of this language if you are planning to become a developer yourself.

Java is extremely interesting in its properties because it allows the developer to write a piece of code, and then to run it elsewhere without having to adjust for the hardware it is running on. Java code is compiled to a "bytecode" and can be read and run by any machine utilizing a Java Virtual Machine, which allows it to run on the myriad of devices that we explained above. Java aims to be similar in look and feel to C++, but it has less low-level functionalities (direct talking capability to the operating system), and it enforces an object-oriented programming environment. While this may seem restricting at first glance, it opens the possibility for Java to run in many machines that would struggle to have complex functionalities like the ones Java allows.

Releases

There are now 2 different types of releases:
  • Features releases (only supported by Oracle until the next release, i.e. for 6 months)
  • Long term support releases
Java’s latest release was in March of 2021, which is Java Standard Edition 16. We expect Java SE 17 to release in September of the same year. Selected releases:
  • JDK Alpha and Beta - 1995
  • JDK 1.0 - 23rd Jan 1996
  • Java SE 8 LTS - 18th Mar 2014
  • Java SE 9 - 21st Sep 2017
  • Java SE 10 - 20th Mar 2018
  • JAVA SE 11 LTS - 25th Sep 2018
  • JAVA SE 12 - 19th Mar 2019
  • JAVA SE 13 - 17th Sep 2019
  • JAVA SE 14 - 17th Mar 2020
  • JAVA SE 15 - 15th Sep 2020 (latest Java Version)