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OpenJDK, an open source alternative to Oracle JDK

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Benefits

  • Open source innovation
  • Cost savings
  • Multiplatform support
  • Long-term support
  • Frequent releases

 

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Download and get started developing with OpenJDK

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OPENJDK CONTAINER IMAGES

Download certified and upto-date container images for OpenJDK.

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Overview

An estimated 15 billion devices run Java™ worldwide . Until January 2019, no one had to pay for access to a current Java Virtual Machine (JVM), but Oracle implemented a significant change to its release cadence and support model. Oracle JDK is no longer free for production workloads and patches, leaving organizations with a choice to either pay Oracle for continued production support and updates for Oracle JDK, adopt OpenJDK and upgrade every six months, or migrate to an alternative OpenJDK implementation.

The impact to the Java community is tremendous because 70% of Java developers use the Oracle JDK JVM. The Red Hat® build of OpenJDK is a free and open source implementation of the Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE). It is an alternative that will allow your organization to stabilize and standardize your Java environments for years to come with little to no transition effort.

Benefits

The Red Hat build of OpenJDK offers a number of features and benefits.

Table 1. Benefits

BenefitDescription
Open source innovationRed Hat is a member of the OpenJDK Governing Board and is the second largest contributor (behind Oracle).
Cost savingsOpenJDK support is included in Red Hat Enterprise Linux®, Red Hat Middleware, and Red Hat Runtimes subscriptions. A standalone Windows subscription is also available for purchase.
Multiplatform supportOpenJDK is tightly integrated with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and is supported on Windows.

Application Management		OpenJDK includes Mission Control1 which is a tool suite for managing, monitoring, profiling, and troubleshooting Java applications. It is useful for understanding application behavior such as memory leaks, deadlock, and much more.
Long-term supportRed Hat provides long-term support for OpenJDK versions 7, 8, and 11. Support duration is 6 years from the time that a major version of OpenJDK is first introduced in the particular version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, or until the retirement date of the underlying version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, whichever comes first.
Frequent releasesRed Hat expects to deliver 4 updates per year and timely
security fixes for the OpenJDK 8 and 11 distributions.

APPLICATION MIGRATION TOOLKIT

Red Hat Application Migration Toolkit provides a set of utilities to identify and plan the migration of your existing Java codebase to OpenJDK.

developers.redhat.com/products/rhamt

Life-cycle support

All Red Hat distributions of OpenJDK are supported for development and production for all Java workloads, giving you the confidence to develop, test, and deploy in Windows or Linux-based environments. The JRE2 and JDK distributions are made available via rpm and zip files. Red Hat expects to deliver four updates per year, approximately three months apart, for the OpenJDK 8 and 11 distributions.

Table 2. Red Hat Enterprise Linux version support and life-cycle dates

OpenJDK VersionRed Hat Enterprise Linux 5Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8End of support
6 (1.6)5.36.07.0N/ADecember 2016
7 (1.7)5.96.37.0N/AJune 2020
8 (1.8)N/A6.67.18.0June 2023
11N/AN/A7.68.0October 2024

Table 3. Windows version support and life-cycle dates

OpenJDK
version		Windows Server
2012 R2		Windows Server
2016		Windows 7,
8, 10		End of Support
8 (1.8)August 2018August 2018December 2018June 2023
11October 2018October 2018December 2018October 2024

Entitlements

Support for the Red Hat build of OpenJDK is included or available via the following subscriptions:

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux
  • Red Hat Middleware
  • Red Hat Runtimes
  • Red Hat build of OpenJDK for Windows (for all non-Red Hat Middleware Java workloads)

An Oracle JDK Alternative

OpenJDK and Oracle JDK are implementations of the same Java SE specification. In 2017, Oracle committed to open sourcing the remaining Java SE tools with the goal of making Oracle JDK and OpenJDK interchangeable. While some minor differences still exist, OpenJDK 11 and Oracle JDK 11 are now functionally interchangeable. The builds are nearly identical except for a few features (e.g., Advanced Management Console) that are shipped separately via the Java SE Advanced commercial offering.

The Red Hat build of OpenJDK is also baselined from the OpenJDK project. All of the additional work done by Red Hat is implemented first in the OpenJDK community, which means our customers can run their applications on a certified OpenJDK distribution. The Red Hat build has passed the Java Technology Compatibility Kit (TCK) from Oracle to ensure it is in compliance with the Java specification.

The Red Hat build Of OpenJDK productization process

Red Hat offers full production support for the Red Hat build of OpenJDK, which is our productized version of OpenJDK. Support includes vulnerability exposures, security notifications and fixes, service-level agreements, and more.

 

image container Figure 1. Productization process of OpenJDK

 

Our productization process includes activities such as feature engineering, security, testing, creation of deployment artifacts, product integration, documentation, and more. Red Hat is fully committed to the open source community and is the second leading contributor (behind Oracle) to the OpenJDK project. Red Hat has provided many certified solutions over the years, and we contribute most of our productization work to the OpenJDK upstream project.

Long history with OpenJDK

Red Hat’s history with OpenJDK dates to 2007, when we became the first major software vendor to contribute to the OpenJDK community. Red Hat is also a member of the OpenJDK Governing Board and will serve as the steward of the OpenJDK 8 and OpenJDK 11 projects after a transition of leadership from Oracle.

 

image container Figure 2. Red Hat leadership with OpenJDK

Red Hat is distributing Mission Control for OpenJDK 11, and is working on supporting OpenJDK 8.

JRE distributions are only available for version 1.8. JRE’s are no longer separately installed for version 1.11.