On March 17, 2026, JDK 26, the reference implementation of the Java SE platform (Platform version 26), specified in JSR 401 as part of the Java Community Process, was released. This was reported on official OpenJDK website.
Key release details:
- Title: General Availability (public version).
- Binary assemblies: Production-ready binaries under the GPL license in the Oracle build are already available at jdk.java.net.
- Development: The features and release schedule were developed through the JEP (JDK Enhancement Proposal) process, based on JEP 2.0. The release itself was prepared using the JDK Release Process (JEP 3).
JDK 26 development and release schedule:
- Rampdown Phase One (branch from main line): December 4, 2025
- Rampdown Phase Two: January 15, 2026
- Initial Release Candidate: February 5, 2026
- Final Release Candidate: February 19, 2026
- General Availability: March 17, 2026
Major changes:
- 500: Using deep reflection to modify fields marked with the "final" keyword now results in a warning and is planned for removal in the future;
- 504: Applet API used to run Java applications in the browser has been removed;
- 516: the ability to use a pre-formed cache (AOT – ahead-of-time) with any garbage collector has been implemented;
- 517: HTTP/3 protocol support has been added to the HTTP Client API;
- 522: Improved performance of G1 garbage collector;
- 524: The API for encoding and decoding objects with cryptographic keys, certificates, and certificate revocation lists in PEM format has been updated to the Second Preview stage;
- 525: Structured Concurrency API updated to Sixth Preview;
- 526: Lazy Constants API for working with objects containing immutable data has been updated to Second Preview;
- 529: The eleventh test implementation (Eleventh Incubator) of the Vector API, which provides functions for vector computations using vector instructions of x86_64 and AArch64 processors, is proposed;
- 530: Fourth draft of the ability to use primitive types (int, byte, char, and other basic non-object types) in all kinds of templates, in the instanceof operator, and in switch blocks.
Source: linux.org.ru
