Backing Saab’s assessment, the Snyk JVM Ecosystem 2020 report, published last month, reports that 64 percent of Java users polled are using Java SE (Standard Edition) 8 for their main application in production, while 3 percent reported using an even earlier version. Saab cited anecdotal evidence in his assessment of Java 8’s continued prominence. Extended-level support for Java 8 was supposed to end in 2025, but customers sought an extension. įor that reason, Oracle recently agreed to offer fee-based Extended-level support for Java 8, featuring additional maintenance and upgrades, until December 2030. While 30 percent to 40 percent of Java users are believed to now be using Java 11 or later in production, even more users are probably running Java 8, said Georges Saab, vice president of software development in the Java platform group at Oracle.
Nevertheless, Java 8 - aka Java Development Kit (JDK) 8 - is likely the most-used version of Java today, an Oracle official acknowledged on March 12. Java 8 was released six years ago this month and has been succeeded by several other Java versions.
