J2SE Update Release Cycles

The J2SE update release cycle is quarter based, so there are roughly 4 update releases for each major J2SE release. Major releases are those such as 1.3.1, 1.4.1, 1.4.2, etc. Minor, or update releases are those such as 1.3.1_02, 1.3.1_03, 1.4.2_03, and so on.

This is confirmed on a java.sun.com public page:

"Update Releases

An update release is generally produced quarterly for current Java technology major product family releases (an update release example would be Java 2 Standard Edition SDK v. 1.3.0_0x). Since this an update to a major product, the update itself does not have a separate EOL period. Once a new update is posted, it will immediately displace the previous download. The displaced download will be moved to the Product Archive page." Java Technology EOL Policy

So what does this really mean? When a bug is found in a J2SE release, such as 1.4.2_03, Sun does not issue a public patch in order to fix it. Instead, the fix is integrated into the next update release. You can easily tell what has been fixed in the update releases by reading the release notes. For example, the 1.4.2_04 release has over 80 BugIDs addressed. See for yourself.

But will my application vendor support the update release?

Quick answer, Yes. There is no reason that a vendor should refuse to support their application if the user decides to upgrade to an update release. As long as the user is running a supported major release, the latest update release should be supported. I know this is true for application servers and web servers from Sun, BEA and IBM.

The moral of the story is..upgrade your JDK/JRE on each minor update. Oh and make sure to pay attention to the release notes.

© Copyright 2005 Moazam Raja. Last update: 3/12/05; 2:10:08 PM.