Microsoft's OpenJDK version is now available

Microsoft

At the end of last year we shared here on the blog the news about Microsoft's interest in the development of OpenJDK and Microsoft formally signed a collaboration agreement with Oracle "Oracle Contributor Agreement" and has been welcomed in the Java community.

In addition to previously Microsoft released a preview version last April and now Microsoft announced this week the general availability of its own version of OpenJDK, the open source version of the Java Development Kit (JDK).

Microsoft's OpenJDK is designed to help business developers create their own software, but also to help other developers who write Java applications. During the first announcement in April, the Redmond firm said that just over 140.000 of its virtual machines were already based on its version of OpenJDK.

"Today, we are pleased to announce the general availability of Microsoft Build of OpenJDK, a new free distribution of OpenJDK that is open source and available for free for anyone to deploy anywhere," wrote George Adams, Senior Program Manager. at Microsoft, in a blog post Tuesday. He recalled that Microsoft uses a lot of Java, with more than 500.000 JVMs running internally. "The Java Engineering Group is very proud to contribute to the Java ecosystem and help power workloads like LinkedIn, Minecraft and Azure," he added.

Microsoft's OpenJDK includes binaries for Java 11, based on OpenJDK 11.0.11 + 9, on x64 servers and desktop environments on Windows, macOS, and Linux. The company has also released a new early access binary for Java 16 for Linux and Windows on ARM, based on the latest version of OpenJDK 16.0.1 + 9.

According to Microsoft, This new version of Java 16 is already used by millions of Minecraft players, with the latest version 21W19A of Minecraft Java Edition Snapshot, which has been updated to include a Java 16 runtime based on Microsoft's OpenJDK.

“We have implemented our own version of OpenJDK on hundreds of thousands of virtual machines on Microsoft and LinkedIn. Overall, Microsoft has more than 500.000 virtual machines running Java at Microsoft, ”said Julia Liuson, vice president of Microsoft's developer division. "We also provide this service to Azure customers," he added. Microsoft also publishes the OpenJDK Docker images and the corresponding Dockerfiles. These images can be used by any Java application or any component of the Java application for deployment anywhere, including Microsoft Azure.

In addition to these points, Adams announced that OpenJDK Microsoft Build versions of OpenJDK 11 have long-term support (LTS) and will receive free quarterly updates. It also added that Microsoft's OpenJDK binaries may contain backward-compatible fixes and enhancements that the team considers important to customers and internal users, but which have not been incorporated into the OpenJDK project upstream due to decisions outside of Microsoft's control. .

According to him, fixes and enhancements that have not yet been officially incorporated upstream they will be clearly stated in the release notes and the source code will be available. Microsoft's version of OpenJDK is a milestone for the company, which is establishing itself more as a key player in the Java community.

However, it would be less than the two million Python developers using VS Code. “We believe that Microsoft is in a unique position to be a partner in the language community. We can make a direct contribution to the JDK community and offer a world-class tool, namely VS Code, ”says Liuson.

Microsoft's contributions to OpenJDK include work on the garbage collector and writing capabilities for Java runtime. In conclusion, Microsoft's version of OpenJDK is available for free and can be deployed on eligible Azure support plans. Includes binaries for Java 11 based on OpenJDK 11.0.11, on x64 servers and desktop environments on macOS, Linux and Windows.

Source: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/


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