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I’m slightly confused as to what the relation is between OpenJDK and Oracle JDK. Are they based on the same codebase? I was under the (apparently mistaken) impression that OpenJDK and the ”official” (Oracle) JDK were totally different implementations, but seeing how Oracle’s JDK just hit 17, and apparently OpenJDK did at the same time I guess they are derived from the same source. Could anyone enlighten me?

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They are built from the same code base. Any differences are just down to the license, packaging, etc.

Doesn’t the Oracle one include some relatively obscure but non-free libraries?

It certainly has done, but currently the differences are pretty tiny:

https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/javase/17all-relnot...

It's really just 'usage logging', which is for Oracle's management tools. Their stated aim is to eliminate the functional differences, so presumably they are awaiting a non-proprietary replacement for that feature in JDK.

Thanks! So, given the recent license changes to Oracle’s distribution, why would anyone use it? ”Support”?

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