Since 2019, there are various ways to get Java and free updates. There are several solutions that do not have Java certification (in the TCK sense) but allow you to run Java-like programs. This page answers the only question: where you can get all these things.
Warning: work in progress.
Full details will be provided later in a wiki-like structure.
This paper explains what’s going on exactly. You can trust it.
(Archived version of this document is here).
Major Binary Distributions
- Liberica JDK (BellSoft)
- AdoptOpenJDK
- Standard builds (IBM, jClarity)
- Upstream builds (Red Hat)
- Zulu (Azul)
- SapMachine (SAP)
- Corretto (Amazon)
- Pivotal Distribution
- Red Hat build of OpenJDK
- Oracle build of OpenJDK (GPL License)
- Oracle JDK (OTN License)
A more detailed version list is available on Rafael Winterhalter’s website.
Specialized solutions
- GraalVM (a universal virtual machine for running applications written in JavaScript, Python, Ruby, R, JVM-based languages like Java, Scala, Kotlin, Clojure, and LLVM-based languages such as C and C++. AOT included)
- AdoptOpenJDK with Eclipse OpenJ9 (a high performance, scalable JVM implementation that is fully compliant with the Java SE, a component of Open Liberty)
- Azul Zing (JavaSE-compliant JVM with state-of-the-art C4 garbage collector)
- Alibaba Dragonwell8 (an in-house OpenJDK implementation at Alibaba optimized for online e-commerce, financial, logistics applications running on 100,000+ servers. Alibaba Dragonwell is the engine that runs these distributed Java applications in extreme scaling)
- JetBrains Runtime (A runtime environment for running IntelliJ Platform on Win/Mac/GNU-Linux. It’s based on OpenJDK project with some modifications: Subpixel Anti-Aliasing, enhanced font rendering on GNU-Linux, HiDPI support, ligatures, some fixes for native crashes not presented in official builds, and other small enhancements)
- GNU IcedTea (provides a harness to build OpenJDK using Free Software build tools and adds a number of key features like special fixes, non-standard JITs and even support for alternative JamVM & CACAO virtual machines)
- Aleksey Shipilev’s Binary Builds (bleeding edge release and debug JDK builds, JDK tools, and other development goodies)
JDK 17 Early-Access Builds
The easiest way to get early-access, open-source builds is this link:
This build is provided by Oracle under the GNU General Public License, version 2, with the Classpath Exception. You don’t have to worry about the license: this build is not intended for any production use anyway.