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Oracle's builds of Java are open source as well. The OpenJDK codebase is shared across all of the vendors that provide builds.

discuss

teilo|4 years ago

"Open Source" but not free to use as you wish. The Oracle builds require a commercial license.

papercrane|4 years ago

In this case it means GPL+Classpath Exception. The link goes to the Oracle provided OpenJDK builds.

Oracle also has their own build of the JDK which is not GPL. That is free to use in commercial software as well, under their "No-Fee Terms and Conditions"

ajoberstar|4 years ago

Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't see that called out anywhere. I don't believe that's true anymore, but correct me if I'm wrong.

For reference I double checked here: https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/downloads/

fulafel|3 years ago

They might be built from the same source but they have draconian end user licenses and license changes that can unpredictably expose you to Oracle commercial licensing costs and lawyers chasing after you. See eg https://developer.ibm.com/blogs/java-licensing-is-changing-a... & https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/22/oracle_starts_to_incl...

hu3|4 years ago

Thanks! So why would I pick Oracle's implementation?

pritambarhate|4 years ago

Mainly if you want long term support from Oracle. Many enterprise systems are very slow to update. So they can't manage to upgrade before the LTS version goes out of support. So instead of paying to developers to continuously update the code base they pay Oracle to keep supporting the "out-of-free-support" versions of the JVM.

_joel|4 years ago

If you need to run Oracle apps like EBS. They only work on their release, not openjdk.

Side note: Avoid EBS at all costs if you can, unless you like spending money on consultants and like crappy obfuscated processes.

carimura|4 years ago

Depends. Many companies want to rely on long-term supported versions with security/stability updates directly from the folks that wrote a majority of the code in the JDK itself. Also as noted above, Oracle offers the Oracle JDK under a free-in-production license with overlap with the next LTS giving users time to upgrade.

ajoberstar|4 years ago

I personally haven't had a reason to use Oracle's because I like having the latest version and any actively maintained LTS versions available for development and would prefer to use one vendor for all of them. Eclipse Temurin and Azul Zulu are the two I've personally used, but I'm not aware of any technical differences. They should all work the same since they're built from the same code.

Most of the big vendors are running the TCK tests to certify compatibility as well.

krzyk|4 years ago

Question is why would you pick any vendors implementation?

OpenJDK is reference one build from the source which is then taken by vendors and tweaked and built.

pfortuny|4 years ago

I do not know but apart from just vendor lock in, oracle might provide guarantees (maintenance?) that the other providers cannot.

danuker|4 years ago

Ignorance of the Supreme Court decision that Java API copyrights are not enforceable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_LLC_v._Oracle_America,_....