Differences between Oracle JDK and OpenJDK

java difference
user1340582 picture user1340582 · Mar 12, 2014 · Viewed 562.7k times · Source

NOTE: This question is from 2014. As of Java 11 OpenJDK and Oracle JDK are converging.

Are there any crucial differences between Oracle and OpenJDK?

For example, are the garbage collection and other JVM parameters the same?

Does GC work differently between the two?

Answer

Venkateswara Rao picture Venkateswara Rao · Jul 31, 2016

Both OpenJDK and Oracle JDK are created and maintained currently by Oracle only.

OpenJDK and Oracle JDK are implementations of the same Java specification passed the TCK (Java Technology Certification Kit).

Most of the vendors of JDK are written on top of OpenJDK by doing a few tweaks to [mostly to replace licensed proprietary parts / replace with more high-performance items that only work on specific OS] components without breaking the TCK compatibility.

Many vendors implemented the Java specification and got TCK passed. For example, IBM J9, Azul Zulu, Azul Zing, and Oracle JDK.

Almost every existing JDK is derived from OpenJDK.

As suggested by many, licensing is a change between JDKs.

Starting with JDK 11 accessing the long time support Oracle JDK/Java SE will now require a commercial license. You should now pay attention to which JDK you're installing as Oracle JDK without subscription could stop working. source

Ref: List of Java virtual machines

Related questions

What is the difference between JVM, JDK, JRE & OpenJDK?

What is the difference between JVM, JDK, JRE & OpenJDK? I was programming in Java and I encountered these phrases, what are the differences among them?

Read More
Java 8: Difference between two LocalDateTime in multiple units

I am trying to calculate the difference between two LocalDateTime. The output needs to be of the format y years m months d days h hours m minutes s seconds. Here is what I have written: import java.time.Duration; …

Read More
What's the difference between Mockito Matchers isA, any, eq, and same?

I am confused on what's the difference between them, and which one to choose in which case. Some difference might be obvious, like any and eq, but I'm including them all just to be sure. I wonder about their differences …

Read More