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They rebranded Java 1.x as Java SE x, then later just Java x.

• NovemberWhiskey 3y ago
  No, it's way more confusing than that. They started with Java 1.0 and 1.1 - then to "Java 2" at version 1.2, so you have Java 2 version 1.2 ... they then stuck with that through the version after 1.4 - but rather than 1.5, that was special as it was Java 2 version 5.0 ... thereafter they're just numbered with the plain number.
  • wizzwizz4 3y ago
    So that's where the 2 in J2ME comes from!
  • hbn 3y ago
    > thereafter they're just numbered with the plain number. $ java -version java version "1.8.0_391" Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_391-b13) Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.391-b13, mixed mode) ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
    • NovemberWhiskey 3y ago
      Oh, that's the JRE software version - that's completely different from the language version. For the JRE, I want to say that they stuck with the 1.version.minor numbering (although the last version with a minor other zero was I think the Very Popular And Probably Still In Prod 1.4.2), with updates suffixed with "u" + number through the Java 8 series, but then with 9 they switched to version.minor.update instead. It's completely incomprehensible; not even Oracle can keep it straight.