Java JDK 8 Release Candidate Finally Arrives

Java JDK 8 was delayed due to the lambda expression support and back in September was the first JDK 8 developer preview. This week we now have the first release candidate for the upcoming Java 8.

Mathias Axelsson at Oracle promoted build 128 today as the first release candidate build of JDK 8. This Oracle JDK release manager mentioned in a mailing list post, "If a showstopper bug shows up that is deemed critical for the JDK 8 release then we'll have to create a new build to include it."

Among the features found in JDK 8 are the lambda expression syntax, functional collections, a new date/time library, new VM-level improvements, code library improvements, default methods in interfaces, and is very Linux friendly. More details on the JDK 8 Release Candidate features along with other Phoronix reader thoughts on this major and long-awaited Java update, check out this forum thread.