Essential Java

Java SE Versions

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Java SE Version History

The following table provides the timeline for the significant major versions of the Java SE platform.

Java SE Version1 | Code Name | End-of-life (free2) | Release Date — | — | — | — Java SE 9 (Early Access) | None | future | 2017-07-27 (estimated) Java SE 8 | None | future | 2014-03-18 Java SE 7 | Dolphin | 2015-04-14 | 2011-07-28 Java SE 6 | Mustang | 2013-04-16 | 2006-12-23 Java SE 5 | Tiger | 2009-11-04 | 2004-10-04 Java SE 1.4.2 | Mantis | prior to 2009-11-04 | 2003-06-26 Java SE 1.4.1 | Hopper / Grasshopper | prior to 2009-11-04 | 2002-09-16 Java SE 1.4 | Merlin | prior to 2009-11-04 | 2002-02-06 Java SE 1.3.1 | Ladybird | prior to 2009-11-04 | 2001-05-17 Java SE 1.3 | Kestrel | prior to 2009-11-04 | 2000-05-08 Java SE 1.2 | Playground| prior to 2009-11-04 | 1998-12-08 Java SE 1.1 | Sparkler | prior to 2009-11-04 | 1997-02-19 Java SE 1.0 | Oak | prior to 2009-11-04 | 1996-01-21

Footnotes:

  1. The links are to online copies of the respective releases documentation on Oracle’s website. The documentation for many older releases no longer online, though it typically can be downloaded from the Oracle Java Archives.
  2. Most historical versions of Java SE have passed their official “end of life” dates. When a Java version passes this milestone, Oracle stop providing free updates for it. Updates are still available to customers with support contracts.

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Java SE Version Highlights

Java SE Version | Highlights | —— | —— | Java SE 8 | Lambda expressions and MapReduce-inspired Streams. The Nashorn Javascript engine. Annotations on types and repeating annotations. Unsigned arithmetic extensions. New Date and Time APIs. Statically linked JNI libraries. JavaFX launcher. Removal of PermGen. | Java SE 7 | String switches, try-with-resource, the diamond (<>), numeric literal enhancements and exception handling / rethrowing improvements. Concurrency library enhancements. Enhanced support for native file systems. Timsort. ECC crypto algorithms. Improved 2D graphics (GPU) support. Pluggable annotations. | Java SE 6 | Significant performance enhancements to JVM platform and Swing. Scripting language API and Mozilla Rhino Javascript engine. JDBC 4.0. Compiler API. JAXB 2.0. Web Services support (JAX-WS) | Java SE 5 | Generics, annotations, auto-boxing, enum classes, varargs, enhanced for loops and static imports. Specification of the Java Memory Model. Swing and RMI enhancements. Addition of java.util.concurrent.* package and Scanner. | Java SE 1.4 | The assert keyword. Regular expression classes. Exception chaining. NIO APIs - non-blocking I/O, Buffer and Channel. java.util.logging.* API. Image I/O API. Integrated XML and XSLT (JAXP). Integrated security and cryptography (JCE, JSSE, JAAS). Integrated Java Web Start. Preferences API. | Java SE 1.3 | HotSpot JVM included. CORBA / RMI integration. Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI). Debugger framework (JPDA). JavaSound API. Proxy API. | Java SE 1.2 | The strictfp keyword. Swing APIs. The Java plugin (for web browsers). CORBA interoperability. Collections framework. | Java SE 1.1 | Inner classes. Reflection. JDBC. RMI. Unicode / character streams. Internationalization support. Overhaul of AWT event model. JavaBeans. |

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