Java versioning and terminology, 1.6 vs 6.0 OpenJDK vs Sun

java versioning terminology
brad picture brad · Mar 9, 2010 · Viewed 10.7k times · Source

I'm having problems understanding Java versioning. I'm seeing lots of versions like 1.4.2, 1.5 and 1.6, but I also stumble upon 5.0 and 6.0. I don't understand this versioning or the progression.

I'm pretty new to Java, and I've read a bit about OpenJDK vs Sun, and I think I understand it. Are these versions the difference between OpenJDK and Sun? For example, OpenJDK's latest is 1.6 and Sun's is 6.0?

All these versions are pretty confusing to someone new to Java.

Answer

Michael Borgwardt picture Michael Borgwardt · Mar 9, 2010

The versioning is simply a mess:

  • Java 1.0 and 1.1 were normal
  • Then came Java 1.2, but you were supposed to call it "Java 2, JDK 1.2"
  • This continued until 1.4 (There were also minor releases like 1.4.2)
  • The next version was then supposedly "Java 5.0", but there was still "1.5" all over the place in the file names and URLs.
  • Starting with Java 6, they've dropped the minor version and mostly (but not completely, see output of java -version) eliminated the traces of the old versioning scheme, but people have gotten used to it and continue to use it colloquially.

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