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I'm not familiar with Java programming.

Does this mean that Oracle has decided that Java 8 is the last consumer version of Java?

Or like you've said that applications shouldn't use the OS level java installation?

The latter. To ship Java applications it is recommended now that you build a custom bundle instead of relying on the system Java.

Post version 8 work was done to modularise core Java. You can now generate a stripped down custom run time to bundle with your application: