The following table provides the timeline for the significant major versions of the Java SE platform.
Java SE Version1 | Code Name | End-of-life (free2) | Release Date — | — | — | — Java SE 9 (Early Access) | None | future | 2017-07-27 (estimated) Java SE 8 | None | future | 2014-03-18 Java SE 7 | Dolphin | 2015-04-14 | 2011-07-28 Java SE 6 | Mustang | 2013-04-16 | 2006-12-23 Java SE 5 | Tiger | 2009-11-04 | 2004-10-04 Java SE 1.4.2 | Mantis | prior to 2009-11-04 | 2003-06-26 Java SE 1.4.1 | Hopper / Grasshopper | prior to 2009-11-04 | 2002-09-16 Java SE 1.4 | Merlin | prior to 2009-11-04 | 2002-02-06 Java SE 1.3.1 | Ladybird | prior to 2009-11-04 | 2001-05-17 Java SE 1.3 | Kestrel | prior to 2009-11-04 | 2000-05-08 Java SE 1.2 | Playground| prior to 2009-11-04 | 1998-12-08 Java SE 1.1 | Sparkler | prior to 2009-11-04 | 1997-02-19 Java SE 1.0 | Oak | prior to 2009-11-04 | 1996-01-21
Footnotes:
Source:
Java SE Version | Highlights |
—— | —— |
Java SE 8 | Lambda expressions and MapReduce-inspired Streams. The Nashorn Javascript engine. Annotations on types and repeating annotations. Unsigned arithmetic extensions. New Date and Time APIs. Statically linked JNI libraries. JavaFX launcher. Removal of PermGen. |
Java SE 7 | String switches, try-with-resource, the diamond (<>
), numeric literal enhancements and exception handling / rethrowing improvements. Concurrency library enhancements. Enhanced support for native file systems. Timsort. ECC crypto algorithms. Improved 2D graphics (GPU) support. Pluggable annotations. |
Java SE 6 | Significant performance enhancements to JVM platform and Swing. Scripting language API and Mozilla Rhino Javascript engine. JDBC 4.0. Compiler API. JAXB 2.0. Web Services support (JAX-WS) |
Java SE 5 | Generics, annotations, auto-boxing, enum
classes, varargs, enhanced for
loops and static imports. Specification of the Java Memory Model. Swing and RMI enhancements. Addition of java.util.concurrent.*
package and Scanner
. |
Java SE 1.4 | The assert
keyword. Regular expression classes. Exception chaining. NIO APIs - non-blocking I/O, Buffer
and Channel
. java.util.logging.*
API. Image I/O API. Integrated XML and XSLT (JAXP). Integrated security and cryptography (JCE, JSSE, JAAS). Integrated Java Web Start. Preferences API. |
Java SE 1.3 | HotSpot JVM included. CORBA / RMI integration. Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI). Debugger framework (JPDA). JavaSound API. Proxy API. |
Java SE 1.2 | The strictfp
keyword. Swing APIs. The Java plugin (for web browsers). CORBA interoperability. Collections framework. |
Java SE 1.1 | Inner classes. Reflection. JDBC. RMI. Unicode / character streams. Internationalization support. Overhaul of AWT event model. JavaBeans. |
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