Fedora 33 Plans To Default To OpenJDK 11 As The Default Java Version

To date Fedora has defaulted to Java 1.8 / OpenJDK 8 as the default system JDK version but for Fedora 33 later this year they plan to transition to OpenJDK 11.

OpenJDK 11 would be the default version for java/javac rather than the aging but still popular OpenJDK 8.

Red Hat's own Java team meanwhile would be fine with keeping OpenJDK 8 the default until time of OpenJDK 17. "In previous bumps, we, Red Hat's openjdk team, were a driving force to bump the system JDK. In this case, we are a bit reluctant, but the desire from users to bump the JDK seems strong. We are quite happy to skip JDK11 as system JDK at all, and jump directly from 8 to 17 in some three years."

The proposal to use OpenJDK 11 by default is laid out in this change proposal that is still being debated and yet to be weighed on by the Fedora Engineering and Steering Committee.

Meanwhile at yesterday's FESCo meeting, the committee did approve of Fedora 33 going with RPM 4.16 and transitioning the RPM database from Berkeley DB to SQLite.