Stewardship of OpenJDK 7 Project Shifts to Red Hat

Leadership transition addresses need for continued support of the technology and community

RALEIGH, N.C. - —

Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT), the world's leading provider of open source solutions, today announced that it is taking the reins of the OpenJDK 7 project following a transition of leadership that is meant to help provide continuity of public updates and support for the technology and its users, freeing other members of the community to focus on future versions of Java.

Our involvement in the OpenJDK projects goes beyond helping to maintain the technology and support existing users. We see it as a matter of maintaining trust and the true spirit of open source within the Java community, as well. We remain committed to Java and the organizations running these specifications.

Craig Muzilla

senior vice president, Application Platforms Business, Red Hat

As a result of the leadership transition, Red Hat will take a more active role in the maintenance of the Java 7 stream through the OpenJDK 7 project, while also spearheading projects aimed at enhancing the OpenJDK technology, such as Shenandoah and Thermostat. The continued maintenance of OpenJDK 7 is vital for the myriad of organizations that rely on the technology for mission-critical enterprise applications and infrastructures.

Red Hat has been a leading contributor to the open source implementation of the Java specification for more than seven years, and assumed leadership of the OpenJDK 6 community in March 2013 following a similar leadership transition. Red Hat's long-time Java technical lead, Andrew Haley, will represent the company as project lead for both the OpenJDK 6 and OpenJDK 7 projects. He is an active member of the OpenJDK governing board where he helps guide the future strategy of Java and OpenJDK.

Java remains one of the top programming languages today and is popular due to a combination of its longevity, technical merits, and its familiarity among enterprise developers.

Supporting Quotes
Craig Muzilla, senior vice president, Application Platforms Business, Red Hat
“Our involvement in the OpenJDK projects goes beyond helping to maintain the technology and support existing users. We see it as a matter of maintaining trust and the true spirit of open source within the Java community, as well. We remain committed to Java and the organizations running these specifications.”

Al Hilwa, research program director, Application Development Software, IDC
“Red Hat continues to show that it is serious about wanting to see Java succeed in the long term and to see enterprises succeed with Java. Enterprises need and depend on the availability of strong commercial support for platform technologies like Java.”

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