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- Last Updated on 30 March 2024   |   Print Email
This article gives you an overview of all Java versions throughout its history, for Java Standard Edition (SE) Development Kit (JDK), from the first version to the latest one till date.
The latest version of Java is Java 22 or JDK 22 released on March, 19th 2024 (follow
this article to check Java version on your computer).
JDK 22 is a regular update of Java SE platform. And
JDK 21 is currently the latest long-term support release (LTS), replacing JDK 17 which is the previous LTS of the Java SE platform.From the first version released in 1996 to the latest version JDK 22 available to the public since March 2024, the Java platform has been actively being developed for more than 28 years. Many changes and improvements have been made to the technology over the years. The following table summarizes all versions of Java SE from its early days to the latest.
Java SE Version | Version Number | Release Date |
JDK 1.0 (Oak) | 1.0 | January 1996 |
JDK 1.1 | 1.1 | February 1997 |
J2SE 1.2 (Playground) | 1.2 | December 1998 |
J2SE 1.3 (Kestrel) | 1.3 | May 2000 |
J2SE 1.4 (Merlin) | 1.4 | February 2002 |
J2SE 5.0 (Tiger) | 1.5 | September 2004 |
Java SE 6 (Mustang) | 1.6 | December 2006 |
Java SE 7 (Dolphin) | 1.7 | July 2011 |
Java SE 8 | 1.8 | March 2014 |
Java SE 9 | 9 | September, 21st 2017 |
Java SE 10 | 10 | March, 20th 2018 |
Java SE 11 | 11 | September, 25th 2018 |
Java SE 12 | 12 | March, 19th 2019 |
Java SE 13 | 13 | September, 17th 2019 |
Java SE 14 | 14 | March, 17th 2020 |
Java SE 15 | 15 | September, 15th 2020 |
Java SE 16 | 16 | March, 16th 2021 |
Java SE 17 | 17 | September, 14th 2021 |
Java SE 18 | 18 | March, 22nd 2022 |
Java SE 19 | 19 |
September, 20th 2022 |
Java SE 20 | 20 | March, 21st 2023 |
Java SE 21 (LTS) | 21 | September, 19th 2023 |
Java SE 22
| 22 | March, 19th 2024 |
From the table above we can see that the naming and the version number have been changing over times:
- Versions 1.0 and 1.1 are named as JDK (Java Development Kit).
- From versions 1.2 to 1.4, the platform is named as J2SE (Java 2 Standard Edition).
- From versions 1.5, Sun introduces internal and external versions. Internal version is continuous from previous ones (1.5 after 1.4), but the external version has a big jump (5.0 for 1.5). This could make confusion for someone, so keep in mind that version 1.5 and version 5.0 are just two different version names for only one thing.
- From Java 6, the version name is Java SE X.
Major versions were released after every 2 years, however the Java SE 7 took 5 years to be available after its predecessor Java SE 6, and 3 years for Java SE 8 to be available to public afterward.Since Java SE 10, new versions will be released very six months.
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About the Author:
Nam Ha Minh is certified Java programmer (SCJP and SCWCD). He started programming with Java in the time of Java 1.4 and has been falling in love with Java since then. Make friend with him on
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