[FIXED] Policy to keep JDK flavors up to date

Issue

I've checked the following distributions on the latest Java SE 11 LTS update release as of today:

• Oracle OpenJDK: v11.0.2
• href="https://adoptopenjdk.net/?variant=openjdk11&jvmVariant=hotspot" rel="nofollow noreferrer">AdoptOpenJDK: v11.0.7
• Oracle JDK: v11.0.7

Why is the first one out-of-sync but the second in-sync with the third?

@EDIT

Java time based releases for whom may be interested.

Solution

All three of those JDK distributions are built from the same source repo, sometimes with slight changes, e.g. to license. The differences are:

• Oracle's OpenJDK is GPL+CE licensed and they only provide free support until the next feature release is shipped. 12 Was released a few weeks after 11.0.2 and so Oracle doesn't ship Oracle OpenJDK 11.0.3.
• Oracle long-term supports Oracle JDK 11 and release a new version every three months as part of their quarterly critical patch updates, hence we're on Oracle JDK 11.0.7 now. This distribution is commercial and can't be used in production without a contract with Oracle (not even 11, 12, etc. after their initial release).
• The changes Oracle and other companies made after 11.0.2 was released are usually visible in the mainline repo (the one linked above) and the community, under the guidance of RedHat, backports these to the JDK 11 clone. AdoptOpenJDK builds from that repo without any changes (that I am aware of; i.e. with GPL+CE) and follows Oracle's release cadence, hence the symmetry (if you look closely at the release dates, you'll see there's a gap of a few days between Oracle JDK and AdoptOpenJDK).

Answered By - Nicolai Parlog
Answer Checked By - David Marino (JavaFixing Volunteer)