The Big Java News Keeps Coming: Java SE 6 and OpenJDK

I recently posted Recent Java 8 News [1], summarizing some of the recent developments in Java 8 [2]. In less than a week since publishing that post, several more significant Java news stories have come out and I summarize some of these in this post. Common themes include different Java SE 6 implementations and OpenJDK [3].

Java Security Issues Impact End-of-Life for Oracle Java SE 6 Implementation

In February 2012, Oracle extended the end-of-life [4] for its Java SE 6 implementation from July 2012 to November 2012. This was later changed to February 2013 as shown in the Java SE EOL Policy [5] under the section "Java SE 6 End of Public Updates Notice": "After February 2013, Oracle will no longer post updates of Java SE 6 to its public download sites." Plans were slightly changed, however, due to discovered security vulnerabilities [6] that led to two more Critical Patch Updates [7] (CPUs): Java SE 6 Update 41 [8] and Java SE 6 Update 43 [9]. Note that the odd numbers in the releases [7] (41 and 43) indicate CPUs rather than limited updates. Oracle encourage developers to move to Java 7 for future updates.

RedHat to Lead OpenJDK 6

It was announced this week [10] that RedHat [11] will take over leadership [12] of the OpenJDK 6 project [13]. As stated in the Red Hat press release [10], this move "effectively [extends] support for [OpenJDK 6] and its users." This is especially significant, of course, given the imminent end-of-life of the Java SE 6 implementation [14] provided by Oracle.

Java on iOS

I recently posted [15] on the announcement of plans to put JavaFX on iOS and Android [15]. Now, there's talk via an OpenJDK JDK Enhancement Proposal [16] (JEP #178 [17] - "Statically-Linked JNI Libraries") of "[enhancing] the JNI specification to support statically-linked native libraries." This becomes even more interesting than it may initially sound when one considers implications [18] such as the potential for this to allow Java applications to be deployed to iOS [19].

Complimentary (Free!) Admission to JAXConf US

It was announced this week [20] that JAXConf US 2013 [21] is open without charge to attendees to attend two days of keynotes and conference sessions (Tutorials day is $299). The conference is being held in Santa Clara, California, in early June (June 4-5).

Original posting available at http://marxsoftware.blogspot.com/ [22] (Inspired by Actual Events)