The confusion over the rights to use Oracle JDK vs Oracle’s OpenJDK builds vs OpenJDK builds from other providers has been hovering over us for quite some time but now that the confusion has been untangled, it’s time to focus on the things that drive Java’s future.
The list of providers of free OpenJDK builds is getting longer. We now have AdoptOpenJDK, Azul, IBM, Red Hat, Linux (to name a few) and Amazon Corretto, which joined the party in late 2018. That’s not surprising though, especially since “OpenJDK is the future of Java,” as Rich Sharples, Senior Director of Product Management for Middleware at Red Hat told us in an interview in November 2018.
Now GoDaddy, the world’s largest cloud platform dedicated to small, independent ventures, has announced its support of AdoptOpenJDK. As part of this sponsorship, GoDaddy will become AdoptOpenJDK’s key technology provider, delivering in-kind hosting and infrastructure services. GoDaddy will also move its products to OpenJDK.
We talked to Charles Beadnall, CTO of GoDaddy about their decision and the immediate benefits.
JAXenter: GoDaddy recently announced its support for AdoptOpenJDK. What does it hope to achieve?
Charles Beadnall: GoDaddy wants to ensure robust open source distributions for Java. We have made significant investments supporting open source projects because it’s good business for our company and customers.
Additionally, with so many other large organizations sponsoring AdoptOpenJDK, it makes them a leading option for LTS builds right now.
OpenJDK is the open source equivalent of the Linux kernel.
JAXenter: What does this support mean to AdoptOpenJDK? What are the immediate benefits?
Charles Beadnall: Aside from sitting on AdoptOpenJDK’s steering committee providing security expertise, GoDaddy is providing its broad suite of small business services to the community to support its online presence. AdoptOpenJDK will run most of its infrastructure on GoDaddy, including a Managed WordPress site, TLS encryption, and Search Engine Optimization.
JAXenter: GoDaddy will move its products to OpenJDK. What does this say about ”the old Java” vs “the free and open Java”? Can Java leave its old ways behind?
Charles Beadnall: OpenJDK is the open source equivalent of the Linux kernel. Most folks have used the Oracle Java distribution which is built on it and was free for decades from Sun Microsystems but is now encumbered with restrictive license terms. There are several alternative Java runtime distributions available and we’ve chosen to back AdoptOpenJDK. Consumers have a choice of either paying up for protection from Oracle or switching to a different distribution; all of these are based on OpenJDK.
SEE ALSO: Recent changes and what’s next for Java: “OpenJDK is the future of Java”
JAXenter: Is OpenJDK the future of Java?
Charles Beadnall: OpenJDK is indeed the origin of all Java distributions. There are subtle differences across the distributions themselves—just as there are with Ubuntu, SuSE and RedHat—but these were comparatively minor for us.
Thank you!