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BASIS and Oracle Java Licensing

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ByJeff Ash 


Recently Oracle announced the Java No-Fee Terms and Conditions License (NFTC). This article will help you understand how this change may affect you and your choice of Java versions to install as part of your application deployment with BASIS technologies.


As you know BASIS, relies on Java for its BBj/BBx product line which require specific Long Term Support (LTS) versions of Java.  The most recent releases of BBj/BBx, 21.xx, all require Java JDK version 11.  Since BASIS has committed to supporting BBj on LTS versions of Java, we are working to add support to BBj for Java 17 to the BBj 22.00 release and beyond.


The announcement of the NFTC license partially reverses the 2018 decision to charge for Oracle JDK in production use, allowing for production usage of the LTS Oracle JDKs for a limited time after release – for Oracle JDK 17 this runs until 30 September 2024. However, the NFTC does not affect the OpenJDK distribution’s availability, only Oracle JDK 17 and future versions.


What does this mean to you?  You continue to have a choice in which LTS distribution of Java you choose to use:


    

  • Oracle 8 or 11 JDK under an Oracle Subscription (see indicative pricing below), 
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  • Oracle 17+ JDK under the NFTC license, or 
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  • OpenJDK 11+ under the GPL license. 
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For clarity on the Oracle Java license requirements, you need to enter into a paid support agreement (Oracle Java SE Subscription) from Oracle for the continued production usage of their LTS:


    

  • Java SE 8 released after April 16, 2019 (Java SE 8 Update 211 onwards),
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  • any Oracle Java SE 11 product,
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  • Oracle Java SE 17, and any future Oracle Java SE LTS products: the NFTC will terminate one year after the release of the subsequent LTS at which time a paid support agreement will need to be in effect:  

      

    • Using Oracle Java SE 17 as an example: the subsequent LTS is predicted to be Java SE 21, to be released in September 2023. In this case, using Oracle Java SE 17 will require a paid Oracle Technology Network (OTN) support agreement after September 2024.
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    • 



Oracle Java SE Subscription contract pricing, as at the time of writing this article, starts at $25/month/processor and $2.50/month/named user.


If you would like to read more on this announcement here are a few articles to review:






















		
            				
 				
  				

			   				
  
		
        

		        
     

			
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