Java (programming language)

Java is an object-oriented high-level programming language that is built on classes and is meant to have as few implementation dependencies as is humanly practicable. It is a general-purpose programming language designed to allow programmers to "write once, run everywhere" (WORA). This means that Java code that has been generated may operate on any systems that accept Java without the need to be recompiled. Applications written in Java are often compiled to bytecode, which is portable and may be executed on any Java virtual machine (JVM), independent of the underlying computer architecture. Java's syntax is comparable to those of C and C++, although it has a lower number of low-level capabilities than either of those languages. Dynamic features (such as reflection and runtime code change), such as those provided by the Java runtime, are often not accessible in traditionally compiled programming languages. According to GitHub, as of the year 2019, Java was one of the most popular programming languages that were being used, notably for client–server web applications. There were reportedly 9 million developers using Java.

James Gosling, working at Sun Microsystems at the time, was the original developer of Java. In May of 1995, it was made available to the public as a fundamental component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. Sun was the company that first made the Java compilers, virtual machines, and class libraries available to the public under private licencing. These included both the original and reference implementations of Java. As of the month of May in 2007, Sun has relicensed the vast majority of its Java technology such that they could only be used under the GNU General Public License version 2.0. Oracle provides its own Java Virtual Machine called HotSpot; however, the official reference implementation is the OpenJDK JVM. The OpenJDK JVM is free and open-source software that is utilised by the majority of developers. It is also the JVM that is set as the default for nearly all Linux distributions.

Java 18, the most recent version, was released in March 2022, whereas Java 17, 11, and 8 are the versions that are still being supported for the long term. In January of 2019, Oracle made available the last no-cost public update for the legacy version of Java 8 LTS intended for business usage. However, the company will continue to support Java 8 with public updates intended for individual use forever. Other manufacturers have started to provide free releases of OpenJDK 18, 8, 11, and 17, all of which are currently undergoing various updates, including those to improve security.

Because there are still unsolved security concerns in previous versions of Java, Oracle and other companies strongly advise removing obsolete and unsupported versions of the software. Oracle strongly encourages all of its customers to upgrade to a supported version, such as one of the LTS variants, as soon as possible (8, 11, 17).