As it turns out, the saying “when one door closes another opens” is true.
The public updates tap for Java 8 commercial users was turned off in January 2019 but another door opened: Amazon Corretto 8 was just released and security updates will be distributed at no cost until at least June 2023.
Arun Gupta, Principal Open Source Technologist at Amazon Web Services, announced in a recent blog post that since the preview was released a few months ago, they’ve made some changes [ that can be found in the change log], including updating the OpenJDK version to 8u202.
Furthermore, they increased the number of supported platforms; the list now includes Amazon Linux 2 x64 and experimental support for aarch64, the x86_64 platform for RPM-based Linux using glibc 2.12 or later, the x86_64 platform for Debian-based Linux using glibc 2.12 or later, x86 and x86_64 for Windows 7 or later, and x86_64 for macOS 10.10 and later.
Last but not least, there’s also an official Docker image for Corretto.
SEE ALSO: Amazon announces Corretto, a *free*, production-ready distribution of OpenJDK with LTS
Don’t confuse Corretto 8 with OpenJDK 8 though! If you have issues or concerns with Corretto 8, file an issue in the Corretto GitHub repository but if your concern has to do with OpenJDK 8 alone, you are advised to raise it in the OpenJDK Bug System, inform the appropriate mailing list for the given problem area, or update project jdk8u-dev.
What’s next?
The team is already working on Corretto 11 builds corresponding to OpenJDK 11. According to Arun Gupta, it will be released with time for testing before April 2019. Corretto 11 will be supported with quarterly updates until at least August 2024.
Download Corretto 8 from aws.amazon.com/corretto, and learn more about it by reading the Corretto docs.
Some of the features/benefits of using Corretto include:
- You can upgrade versions only when you need to
- Certified to meet the Java SE standard and can be used as a drop-in replacement for many Java SE distributions
- Allows you to run the same environment in the cloud, on premises, and on your local machine
- There are no additional paid features or restrictions
If you have any questions about why you should use Amazon Corretto, its LTS plan and the difference between Corretto and OpenJDK, check out the short FAQ included in the docs.
Can I use Corretto as a drop-in replacement for other JDKs?
Corretto is designed as a drop-in replacement for all Java SE distributions unless you are using features (e.g., Java Flight Recorder) not available in OpenJDK. Once Corretto binaries are installed on a host and correctly invoked to run your Java applications (e.g., using the alternatives command on Linux), existing command-line options, tuning parameters, monitoring, and anything else in place will continue to work as before.
The post As public updates for Java 8 come to an end, Amazon Corretto 8 becomes generally available appeared first on JAXenter.
Source : JAXenter
