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In most instances, the Java-based applications you run are licensed separately by a company other than Oracle (for example, games you play on your PC are likely

In most instances, the Java-based applications you run are licensed separately by a company other than Oracle (for example, games you play on your PC are likely developed by a gaming company)," the firm announced in a statement. "These applications may run on the Java platform and be dependent on Oracle Java SE 8 updates beyond 2020. Accordingly, Oracle recommends you contact your application provider for details on how they plan to continue to provide application support to you." To me this reads like they will intentionally "update" the user's Oracle JRE such that it will fail to run applications by non-paying "business developers". If true I suspect the end-user runtimes will check jar's to see if it is signed by the "business developer", and if there is a certificate signed by Oracle confirming the "business developer". The developer can not prevent the user from upgrading their Oracle JRE's. This should have no bearing on users using OpenJDK's JRE, but it may have bearing on FOSS developers if a substantial fragment of their users are running Oracle's JRE, depending on the interpretation of "business developer".

kalleboo 9y ago
Sounds more to me like if you're a business using software that only works on Java SE 8, and tomorrow Java SE 8 breaks in Windows 10.next or some huge security hole is found, your choices are "pay Oracle" or "convince the software vendor to upgrade the software to Java SE 9+". It's up in the air if Oracle prefers the former (=they make money) or the latter (=they can drop support for SE 8 and save money)
- DoctorOetker 9y ago
  but how would that apply to their explicit example of a Java SE 8 computer game ? and the next paragraph is a thinly veiled threat to developers of such a hypothetical game: developers, pay us or we will direct your players' complaints to you (or have fun explaining to all your players on different platforms to either install openjdk or fully remove and reinstall some old copy of Java 8 SE from some mirror somewhere, and explaining them they must from now on ignore the update notifications). I imagine the Oracle JRE will show an error message dialog to the player, containing a URL to this or similar page.
  - peoplewindow 9y ago
    developers, pay us or we will direct your players' complaints to you How is that even remotely unreasonable though? The game example is poor for a different reason; Oracle don't seem to care about desktop apps anymore and they want you to bundle the JVM with your app anyway. Hence new tools like jlink and javapackager.
    - DoctorOetker 9y ago
      I think it would be very unreasonable if a player's "updated" JRE would refuse to run a non-updated application that perfectly worked the day before, on the simple basis of not the developer not paying Oracle. Consider a user on windows with Oracle JRE, using some FOSS Java software. Suddenly he can't run his Java application, because the FOSS developer does not pay Oracle, and the FOSS developer gets flooded with hate mail.
      - peoplewindow 9y ago
        Who is suggesting that will happen? I suspect you aren't quite sure about what "support" means here. It doesn't mean your app suddenly stops working one day. For most apps it'll make no difference in fact.

kalleboo 9y ago

Sounds more to me like if you're a business using software that only works on Java SE 8, and tomorrow Java SE 8 breaks in Windows 10.next or some huge security hole is found, your choices are "pay Oracle" or "convince the software vendor to upgrade the software to Java SE 9+". It's up in the air if Oracle prefers the former (=they make money) or the latter (=they can drop support for SE 8 and save money)

DoctorOetker 9y ago
but how would that apply to their explicit example of a Java SE 8 computer game ? and the next paragraph is a thinly veiled threat to developers of such a hypothetical game: developers, pay us or we will direct your players' complaints to you (or have fun explaining to all your players on different platforms to either install openjdk or fully remove and reinstall some old copy of Java 8 SE from some mirror somewhere, and explaining them they must from now on ignore the update notifications). I imagine the Oracle JRE will show an error message dialog to the player, containing a URL to this or similar page.
- peoplewindow 9y ago
  developers, pay us or we will direct your players' complaints to you How is that even remotely unreasonable though? The game example is poor for a different reason; Oracle don't seem to care about desktop apps anymore and they want you to bundle the JVM with your app anyway. Hence new tools like jlink and javapackager.
  - DoctorOetker 9y ago
    I think it would be very unreasonable if a player's "updated" JRE would refuse to run a non-updated application that perfectly worked the day before, on the simple basis of not the developer not paying Oracle. Consider a user on windows with Oracle JRE, using some FOSS Java software. Suddenly he can't run his Java application, because the FOSS developer does not pay Oracle, and the FOSS developer gets flooded with hate mail.
    - peoplewindow 9y ago
      Who is suggesting that will happen? I suspect you aren't quite sure about what "support" means here. It doesn't mean your app suddenly stops working one day. For most apps it'll make no difference in fact.