Hacker News Reader

Comment by qwerty456127 | Hacker News Reader

What's the point of avoiding the standard Java installer provided by Oracle then? I thought the only problem with it is that you are not allowed to put it in the distros or automate its downloading.

View on HN

It looks like Oracle will only provide binary releases for the LTS versions (after the regular 6 month release window) to paying customers: https://medium.com/codefx-weekly/no-free-java-lts-version-b8....

After going back and looking at http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/eol-135779.html I noticed that it doesn't conflict with what you posted above. It specifically doesn't call out model for Java 11...

This may be nail in Java's coffin if this plays out as implied.

This is one of the reasons why we created the build farm and will be producing LTS supported builds for OpenJDK. It will be a default place that people can go to get a professionally tested, TSK compliant OpenJDK binary. They can also still choose to go to a vendor for commercial support.

You mean the new year-based versioning system? I think it's not that bad (until they decide to introduce breaking changes). Indeed, Oracle giving Java EE away and switching to enterprise-hostile release cycle after watching peacefully at major browsers retiring Java applets support suggests it has lost interest in Java (but the trademark and, perhaps, some patents) but I still believe the JVM platform is still very far from its coffin as it provides great base for amazing aspiring languages like Scala and as Java itself keeps its pretty secure place among the most widely used languages.

The Oracle JRE/JDK often includes commercial features that require premium licensing gated behind configuration parameters or command line parameters.

It's nice to be able to install a JDK where you won't be charged oodles of dollars just because you accidentally used the wrong command line argument.

Typing XX:+UnlockCommercialFeatures does not happen by accident.

Sounds crazy. Would you be so kind to provide an example?

It was all over the news:

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/12/16/oracle_targets_java...

There's a XX:+UnlockCommercialFeatures switch which enables features like the Java Flight Recorder.

Other examples are the MSI Enterprise Installer and JRE Usage Tracking.

Since then, due to the bad press i suppose, Oracle has decided to open source most of these features (the others are retired). The Java Flight Recorder is not yet in the OpenJDK but AppCDS is already integrated in 10.

That's good to know, thanks!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com