Which java version

Preface: Versions vs Editions When you download Java, you'll often see different options for "Java SE 7" or "Java EE 8" While the number clearly indicates the version number, the letters tend to confuse newcomers.

Enterprise Edition EE The enterprise edition includes everything found in the standard edition with some additional libraries providing functionality for large-scale enterprise environments. Micro Edition ME The micro edition provides a subset of the functionality that comes with SE, however it includes some additional libraries specific to mobile development.

In today's world, there are 3 versions of Java that you'll commonly run across: Java 7 Java 7 was originally launched in Despite it's popularity, Java 7 is no longer publicly supported by Oracle. Java 8 Java 8 was released in and replaced Java 7 as the default recommended download.

Oracle officially stopped posting updates for Java 8 after September Java 9 Java 9 was released in and is the main publicly supported version of Java used today.

Java 10 Java 10 was released in March of Java 11 Java 11 was released in September of It is the next major version of Java offering LTS. Additional Notes Developer Version vs Product Version After installing Java, you can run java -version to see which version you have installed. Your thoughts?

Share your thoughts. How does the JIT compiler work in Java? What is the JIT compiler in Java? When are classes loaded in Java? What causes Java "Could not find or load main class" error? For example:. How can I find which version of Java is installed without running an applet in Windows or Mac?

A dialog appears after clicking About showing the Java version. Windows 11 SE. Microsoft Default Browser Firefox. Google's New Pet Art. Robinhood Hack Find Downloaded Files on an iPhone. Use Your iPhone as a Webcam. Hide Private Photos on iPhone. Take Screenshot by Tapping Back of iPhone. Should You Upgrade to Windows 11? Browse All Windows Articles. Copy and Paste Between Android and Windows. Protect Windows 10 From Internet Explorer. Mozilla Fights Double Standard.

Connect to a Hidden Wi-Fi Network. Change the Size of the Touch Keyboard. Check Bluetooth Device Battery Life. It obviously does not work the other way around, say your program relies on Java 17 features, that are simply not available under a Java 8 JVM.

This serves as a good base. And then learn, from a guide like this, what additional features came in Java and use them whenever you can. But as a rule of thumb: The older, longer release-cycles years, up until Java 8 meant a lot of new features per release.

The 6-month release cycle means a lot less features, per release, so you can catch up quickly on Java language features. Historically, you downloaded just a JRE if you were only interested in running Java programs. To develop new Java programs, you needed to download a JDK. With Java 9 that distinction was basically gone, and you are always downloading a JDK. So, even though some distributions see Java Distributions section still offer a separate JRE download, there seems to be the trend of offering just a JDK.

Hence, we are going to use Java and JDK interchangeably from now on. Ignore the Java-Docker images,. In the end, Java is just a. To verify you installed Java correctly, you can then simply run 'java -version'.

If the output looks like the one below, you are good to go. Which brings us to the topic of distributions. This section will shed some light on this. This is just source code however, not a distributable build think: your. In theory, you and I could produce a build from that source code, call it, say, MarcoJDK and start distributing it.

But our distribution would lack certification, to be able to legally call ourselves Java SE compatible. And while vendors cannot, say, remove a method from the String class before producing a new Java build, they can add branding yay!

CLI utilities they deem useful. But other than that, the original source code is the same for all Java distributions. One of the vendors who builds Java from source is Oracle. This leads to two different Java distributions , which can be very confusing at first. OpenJDK builds by Oracle! OracleJDK , which is a branded, commercial build starting with the license change in Which means it can be used for free during development, but you need to pay Oracle if using it in production.

For this, you get longer support, i. But as of today, both versions are essentially the same, with minor differences. It then boils down to you wanting paid, commercial support a telephone number for your installed Java version. But make sure to check out the individual websites to learn about the advantages of each single distribution. Rafael Winterhalter compiled a great list of all available OpenJDK builds, including their OS, architecture, licensing, support and maintenance windows.

To re-iterate from the beginning, in , unless you have very specific requirements, go get your jdk. The same goes for all other Java versions in between. Which in turns means that all language features from Java 8 serve as very good Java base knowledge and everything else Java is pretty much additional features on top of that baseline.

Java 8 was a massive release and you can find a list of all features at the Oracle website.