Isn't this heavily misleading? This still seems like the charges for continuing to use old versions of Java <= 8. The article doesn't confirm or deny that staying on the latest version remains free.
Its not as simple as just recompiling code. Something like the entire ecosystem has to move, you will have plenty of compatibility problems, code breakage and catch-22 situations.
This is not good news for Java.
Also a lot of 'Architects' will be forced to think if they will be made to pay for Java later. Hence should they use something else to build their latest projects?
The EOL for JDK 8 has been known for quite some time now.
Architects who haven’t taken that into account yet have been negligent regardless of Oracle charging for future updates or not.
Migrations almost always require quite some effort but there was plenty of time to prepare in this case.
Either way, if it comes to a point where you have to pay for something like using a programming language. Pay whatever you have to now. But start moving to something other tech over time.
And yeah, don't start new projects in Java.
You can even continue using JDK 8 for free indefinitely. Just don’t expect any future updates from Oracle, security or otherwise.
If you absolutely have to use JDK 8 another option is OpenJDK, which unlike Oracle’s JDK probably will continue receiving updates even for version 8.
I also don’t see why one shouldn’t use Java for new projects. With its huge ecosystem and modern toolsets such as Spring Boot Java is a highly viable option for developing new applications.
At that point, you are just better off using something else to insulate you from things like these.
>>Just don’t expect any future updates from Oracle, security or otherwise.
That's a very big problem for most shops.
>>With its huge ecosystem and modern toolsets such as Spring Boot Java is a highly viable option for developing new applications.
Spring Boot isn't a configuration less framework. Its basically a only one configuration works framework, change something small and nothing works. Also code comes out so unmaintainable no one apart from the original authors generally understands anything about it.