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I never quite understood the relationship between oracle Java and openjdk. Could a company have zero licensing fees if they were to only use openjdk?

AdamN 4y ago
Correct (afaik). Oracle would love for that to not be the case but ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_LLC_v._Oracle_America,_Inc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_LLC_v._Oracle_America,_....
- kaba0 4y ago
  Oracle is literally the steward of the whole platform, 95+% of all OpenJDK commits come from Oracle-salaried developers and they were literally the company that made the whole project completely open source to the point where the OracleJDK that used to differ is now only a different brand of the OpenJDK sources. In other news, they charge money for commercial support, that you can buy, what a concept..
  - za3faran 4y ago
    They've been doing a very good job at it as well. The developments that have and are going into Java in the past few years have been quite great. From projects like Amber, Loom, Valhalla, GraalVM, Lilliput, Panama, and more!
bradleyjg 4y ago
Yes. Even if you need support, other companies offer supported jdks
fayten 4y ago
This is correct, these pricing changes are only regarding enterprise licenses for Oracles specific build of Java. Builds of openjdk are free to use and the Eclipse foundation provides builds here: https://adoptium.net/ https://adoptium.net/ Many other companies provide OpenJdK builds for free alongside offering a paid JDK. An example is Azul, they release a free build of Openjdk named Zulu, but also sell a custom JDK that includes a custom high performance GC.
- Tomte 4y ago
  > Many other companies provide OpenJdK builds for free Including Oracle, by the way. You don't have to buy a commercially supported version if you don't want to pay for Java.
KingOfCoders 4y ago
Several Java implementations can be viewed and easily installed with sdkman - I currently use the one from Amazon.
captn3m0 4y ago
WhichJDK has a nice summary: > The OpenJDK is the open source reference implementation of the Java SE Specification, but it is only the source code. Binary distributions are provided by different vendors for a number of supported platforms. The OpenJDK project itself is managed on openjdk.java.net where you can find specifications, source code, and mailing lists, but there are no builds that you can download. You need to choose a distribution. Oracle itself provides builds of OpenJDK[2], but they aren't maintained: > Oracle provides OpenJDK builds for Linux, macOS and windows in a compressed archive format. These builds will only be updated for a 6-month period. Updates and security patches will not be available after this short period. This also applies for LTS versions! e.g., the latest OpenJDK 11 build was 11.0.2+9 while the current OpenJDK version is 11.0.12+7. Then there is the Oracle Java SE SDK[3]. This is the one with the terrible license: > Oracle provides a commercial version of the OpenJDK, which are based on the exactly same sources of the OpenJDK: The Oracle Java SE Development Kit (JDK). Oracle provides updates regular updates and security patches for these builds. The main issue with these builds is Oracle’s licensing policy. [1]: https://whichjdk.com/ https://whichjdk.com/ [2]: https://whichjdk.com/#openjdk-builds-by-oracle-jdkjavanet https://whichjdk.com/#openjdk-builds-by-oracle-jdkjavanet [3]: https://whichjdk.com/#oracle-java-se-development-kit-jdk https://whichjdk.com/#oracle-java-se-development-kit-jdk
fidgewidge 4y ago
By analogy: OpenJDK = Fedora Linux Oracle JDK = Red Hat Enterprise Linux

AdamN 4y ago

Correct (afaik). Oracle would love for that to not be the case but ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_LLC_v._Oracle_America,_Inc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_LLC_v._Oracle_America,_....

kaba0 4y ago
Oracle is literally the steward of the whole platform, 95+% of all OpenJDK commits come from Oracle-salaried developers and they were literally the company that made the whole project completely open source to the point where the OracleJDK that used to differ is now only a different brand of the OpenJDK sources. In other news, they charge money for commercial support, that you can buy, what a concept..
- za3faran 4y ago
  They've been doing a very good job at it as well. The developments that have and are going into Java in the past few years have been quite great. From projects like Amber, Loom, Valhalla, GraalVM, Lilliput, Panama, and more!

bradleyjg 4y ago

Yes. Even if you need support, other companies offer supported jdks

fayten 4y ago

This is correct, these pricing changes are only regarding enterprise licenses for Oracles specific build of Java. Builds of openjdk are free to use and the Eclipse foundation provides builds here: https://adoptium.net/ https://adoptium.net/ Many other companies provide OpenJdK builds for free alongside offering a paid JDK. An example is Azul, they release a free build of Openjdk named Zulu, but also sell a custom JDK that includes a custom high performance GC.

Tomte 4y ago
> Many other companies provide OpenJdK builds for free Including Oracle, by the way. You don't have to buy a commercially supported version if you don't want to pay for Java.

KingOfCoders 4y ago

Several Java implementations can be viewed and easily installed with sdkman - I currently use the one from Amazon.

captn3m0 4y ago

WhichJDK has a nice summary: > The OpenJDK is the open source reference implementation of the Java SE Specification, but it is only the source code. Binary distributions are provided by different vendors for a number of supported platforms. The OpenJDK project itself is managed on openjdk.java.net where you can find specifications, source code, and mailing lists, but there are no builds that you can download. You need to choose a distribution. Oracle itself provides builds of OpenJDK[2], but they aren't maintained: > Oracle provides OpenJDK builds for Linux, macOS and windows in a compressed archive format. These builds will only be updated for a 6-month period. Updates and security patches will not be available after this short period. This also applies for LTS versions! e.g., the latest OpenJDK 11 build was 11.0.2+9 while the current OpenJDK version is 11.0.12+7. Then there is the Oracle Java SE SDK[3]. This is the one with the terrible license: > Oracle provides a commercial version of the OpenJDK, which are based on the exactly same sources of the OpenJDK: The Oracle Java SE Development Kit (JDK). Oracle provides updates regular updates and security patches for these builds. The main issue with these builds is Oracle’s licensing policy. [1]: https://whichjdk.com/ https://whichjdk.com/ [2]: https://whichjdk.com/#openjdk-builds-by-oracle-jdkjavanet https://whichjdk.com/#openjdk-builds-by-oracle-jdkjavanet [3]: https://whichjdk.com/#oracle-java-se-development-kit-jdk https://whichjdk.com/#oracle-java-se-development-kit-jdk

fidgewidge 4y ago

By analogy: OpenJDK = Fedora Linux Oracle JDK = Red Hat Enterprise Linux