Announcing Fully-Supported Java for Lucee

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#1

If you haven’t noticed, there have been some really significant developments in the Java world in 2018, and that’s a big deal for us in the Lucee-verse, since we’re just a big Java application, really. Team Lucee has been working hard for you, as always, to make sure the changes are as smooth and seamless as possible.

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First, here’s a quick summary of what’s been happening:

  • Lucee has always bundled Oracle JDK with our installers, as a convenience (even though you can use any version/release of Java that you want/need).
  • 6 months ago, Oracle announced that they will no longer provide free updates to JDK 8 as of Jan. 1st, 2019.
  • In addition, Oracle also announced that Java 11+ would no longer be free for commercial use. For further reading, if you’re interested: https://www.oracle.com/corporate/pressrelease/java-se-subscription-offering-062118.html
  • This sounded like a bombshell when the news first hit, but not to worry–Java is still free, via OpenJDK, which is maintained by Oracle and the Java community: https://medium.com/@javachampions/java-is-still-free-c02aef8c9e04.
  • To provide our global community with a Java version that is both free and continues to get security updates, Lucee is now bundling OpenJDK with its installer.
  • The process of manually updating your Lucee installation remains the same–you can download the latest OpenJDk builds from adoptopenjdk.net, or another Java provider if you wish.
  • Today we are releasing a refreshed 5.2.9.31 installer with Oracle JDK removed, and replaced with OpenJDK. Available now at download.lucee.org.
  • If you are currently using Oracle Java 8 in production, please be aware that you will receive no more free updates after the new year. Please plan accordingly to update your JVM!

Special kudos are in order for @bdw429s. Brad works for LAS Member Ortus Solutions, and he led the way in keeping Team Lucee in line with these critical developments in the Java world. These kinds of contributions are absolutely essential to Lucee remaining a leading software development platform. I’d like to highlight Brad’s (and Ortus’s) example in asking you to consider full LAS membership in 2019!

In related Lucee news, we are using January as a planning month, so we will be posting more information soon about the 2019 development schedule, including the latest 5.3 releases (coming in January), as well as Lucee 6 later in the year, which has some potentially game-changing new features (hint: headless/serverless deployments!).

Thanks as always for listening, and from everyone here at Lucee, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Best,
Patrick Quinn
LAS Board Member
Lucee Product Manager

#2

Note, Lucee Docker images have been using the official Tomcat image as a base since the beginning. So if you are running a Lucee docker file you are already running OpenJDK.

#3
#4

+1 for @bdw429s being awesome. =)

#5

Charlie Arehart has a good write up on his blog:

What’s an admin to do: Oracle’s changed stance on production use of Java, going forward
https://www.carehart.org/blog/client/index.cfm/2018/11/15/on_production_use_of_java_going_forward

#6

Can’t find the refreshed 5.2.9.31 installer on the download page… is it just me?

#7

It is there, for Windows and Linux 64 bit:

https://cdn.lucee.org/lucee-5.2.9.031-pl1-windows-installer.exe
https://cdn.lucee.org/lucee-5.2.9.031-pl1-linux-x64-installer.run

It has “pl1” in the filename. The Linux 32 bit installer hasn’t been created and will not be supported in future as I don’t believe that OpenJDK has an official 32 bit version (but I might be wrong about that).

#8

Thanks, Andrew.
I got confused by the overview page in the server admin which says “1.8.0_192 (Oracle Corporation) 64bit”.

java -version confirms that it’s

OpenJDK Runtime Environment (AdoptOpenJDK)(build 1.8.0_192-b12)

Thanks again.

#9

Hmm, yes I can see why that would confuse.

@bdw429s do you know why that would be? Does OpenJDK report back “Oracle” for a call do you think for compatibility?

#10

I’ve asked about that on the Adopt OpenJDK Slack and I believe the response was something along the lines of “yeah, we’ve been intending to update that in a future build”. It’s a little vague since basically all of the code and IP are owned and originated by Oracle, and Adopt basically just runs the build to compile it all. So in a sense OpenJDK is 98% Oracle’s work and the other providers are just building it. I’ll ask again what the intent is there. It’s possible they have already changed that on their OpenJDK 11 builds. The last OpenJDK8 build is from several months ago. On a related note-- there is a new security patch for OpenJDK (8u201 and 8u202). Adopt is building it now and new binaries will start coming out as soon as tomorrow so watch that space. If you’re in the middle of upgrading now, might be worth waiting a couple days to get the absolute latest. And I’ll be curious to see if they’ve updated the vendor name in these new builds.

#11

I just got this reply from the guy who runs Adopt (Martjin)

I think the PR has gone in to replace what we’re legally allowed to. So the 202 builds and the next 11 nightlies should be better.

So it sounds like the newest builds will start coming out with “Oracle” replaced to the extent that OpenJDK providers are legally allowed to do so.