The various distributions are discussed here. Some companies charge for their JDK and there are some funny terms and conditions associated with them. The other (slightly annoying) thing with JDKs now is that many different JDK distributions exist. Doh! Which JDK distribution should I use?

Update: The release of v1.8 (June 30th, 2022) of the Language Support for Java by Red Hat extension now requires at least JDK 17. So, choose a JDK between version 8 and 17 to be compatible with VS Code.

Every three years, the September release will be a Long-Term-Support (LTS) release, which gets updates for at least three years.įor local development, you can install whatever version you want! However, nowadays Java 8 is usually the minimum version used and it is advisable to install nothing less than that.īusinesses tend to stick with the latest LTS version for security reasons.

Additionally, there are quarterly bug fix updates.

A new major version number is released every six months, in March and September.

Java versions are released more frequently now than in the past:

For example, if you want to use the newer functional programming features found in Java 8, then you need to install at least the Java 8 JDK. Since the JDK supplies the compiler for your Java programs, the JDK you install determines what Java version you are able to code in. OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 11.0.14+9-Ubuntu-0ubuntu2.20.04, mixed mode, sharing) OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 11.0.14+9-Ubuntu-0ubuntu2.20.04)

Visual studio code ubuntu 16