The Java language has undergone several changes since JDK 1.0 as well as a number of additions of classes and packages to the standard library. Since J2SE 1.4, the evolution of the Java language has been governed by the Java Community Process (JCP), which uses Java Specification Requests (JSRs) to propose and specify additions and changes to the Java platform. The language is specified by the Java Language Specification (JLS); changes to the JLS are managed under JSR 901. In September 2017, Mark Reinhold, chief architect of the Java Platform, proposed to change the release train to "one feature release every six months" rather than the then-current two-year schedule.[1][2] This proposal took effect for all following versions, and is still the current release schedule.

In addition to the language changes, other changes have been made to the Java Class Library over the years, which has grown from a few hundred classes in JDK 1.0 to over three thousand in J2SE 5. Entire new APIs, such as Swing and Java2D, have been introduced, and a number of the original JDK 1.0 classes and methods have been deprecated, and very few APIs have been removed (at least one, for threading, in Java 22[3]). Some programs allow the conversion of Java programs from one version of the Java platform to an older one (for example Java 5.0 backported to 1.4) (see Java backporting tools).

Regarding Oracle's Java SE support roadmap,[4] Java SE 25 (LTS) is the latest version as of September 2025 (and Java 26 a later released version) while versions 21, 17, 11 and 8 are the other still supported (long-term support − LTS) versions, where Oracle customers will receive Oracle Premier Support. Oracle continues to release no-cost public Java 8 updates for development[4] and personal use indefinitely.[5]

In the case of OpenJDK, both commercial long-term support and free software updates are available from multiple organizations in the broader community.[6]

Java 27 was released on 15 September 2026 and Java 25 LTS was released on 16 September 2025.[7]

Release table

JDK 1.0

The first version was released on January 23, 1996.[20][21] The first stable version, JDK 1.0.2, is called Java 1.[21]

It included:

  • core language features (basic java types in java.lang, and utility classes in java.util)
  • support for graphics (AWT framework)
  • support for creating a Java applet
  • libraries for I/O and networking

JDK 1.1

Major additions in the release on February 19, 1997 included:[22]

J2SE 1.2

The release on December 8, 1998 and subsequent releases through J2SE 5.0 were rebranded retrospectively Java 2 and the version name "J2SE" (Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition) replaced JDK to distinguish the base platform from J2EE (Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition) and J2ME (Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition). This was a significant release of Java as it tripled the size of the Java platform to 1520 classes in 59 packages. Major additions included:[24]

J2SE 1.3

The most notable changes in the May 8, 2000 release were:[25][26]

Java 1.3 is the last release of Java to officially support Microsoft Windows 95.[27]

J2SE 1.4

The February 6, 2002 release was the first release of the Java platform developed under the Java Community Process as JSR 59. Major changes included:[28][29]

Public support and security updates for Java 1.4 ended in October 2008. Paid security updates for Oracle customers ended in February 2013.[30]

Java SE 5

The release on September 30, 2004 was originally numbered 1.5, which is still used as the internal version number. The number was changed to "better reflect the level of maturity, stability, scalability and security of the J2SE".[31] This version was developed under JSR 176.

Java SE 5 entered its end-of-public-updates period on April 8, 2008; updates are no longer available to the public as of November 3, 2009. Updates were available to paid Oracle customers until May 2015.[4]

Tiger added a number of significant new language features:[32][33]

  • Generics: provides compile-time (static) type safety for collections and eliminates the need for most typecasts (type conversion) (specified by JSR 14)
  • Metadata: also called annotations; allows language constructs such as classes and methods to be tagged with additional data, which can then be processed by metadata-aware utilities (specified by JSR 175)
  • Autoboxing/unboxing: automatic conversions between primitive types (such as int) and primitive wrapper classes (such as Integer) (specified by JSR 201)
  • Enumerations: the enum keyword creates a typesafe, ordered list of values (such as Day.MONDAY, Day.TUESDAY, etc.); previously this could only be achieved by non-typesafe constant integers or manually constructed classes (typesafe enum pattern) (specified by JSR 201)
  • Varargs: the last parameter of a method can now be declared using a type name followed by three dots (e.g. void drawtext(String... lines)); in the calling code any number of parameters of that type can be used and they are then placed in an array to be passed to the method, or alternatively the calling code can pass an array of that type
  • Enhanced for each loop: the for loop syntax is extended with special syntax for iterating over each member of either an array or any Iterable, such as the standard Collection classes (specified by JSR 201)
  • Improved semantics of execution for multi-threaded Java programs; the new Java memory model addresses issues of complexity, effectiveness, and performance of previous specifications[34]
  • Static imports

There were also the following improvements to the standard libraries:

Java 5 is the last release of Java to officially support Microsoft Windows 98 and Windows ME,[36] while Windows Vista was the newest version of Windows that Java SE 5 was supported on prior to Java 5 going end-of-life in October 2009.[30]

Java 5 Update 5 (1.5.0_05) is the last release of Java to work on Windows 95 (with Internet Explorer 5.5 installed) and Windows NT 4.0.[37]

Java 5 was first available on Apple Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)[38] and was the default version of Java installed on Apple Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard).

Public support and security updates for Java 1.5 ended in November 2009. Paid security updates for Oracle customers ended in April 2015.

Versioning change

This version introduced a new versioning system for the Java language, although the old versioning system continued to be used for developer libraries:

This correspondence continued through later releases (Java 6 = JDK 1.6, Java 7 = JDK 1.7, and so on).