Thursday, 14 March 2019

Java Licensing Changes: Impact and alternatives


From the January 16th, 2019, Oracle has stopped free public updates for Java SE 8 [Update 201] was released on January 15, 2019. The next update [Update 202] which requires a subscription, is scheduled for April 2019. See : https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/alerts-086861.html

Technically, Java is still free. The current release (11) is available via the GPL open source license. But to use free Java, you have to upgrade all your applications to Java 11, you must use the open source OpenJDK distribution and you must commit to deploying a new release every 6 months. OpenJDK 12 is scheduled to be released in March, and OpenJDK 13 is scheduled to be released in September.

you are required to get a Java Subscription from Oracle if you are using Oracle JDK in production. Starting with Java SE 11, OpenJDK and Oracle JDK are identical (in previous releases, they were different). 
According to Oracle’s licensing FAQ (https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/overview/faqs-jsp-136696.html) , Java SE 8 remains free of charge for general purpose desktop and server use. This version of Java is licensed under the Oracle Binary Code License (BCL), which is free to use for development, testing, and production. You can still download Java SE 8 from here: https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html. But Oracle no longer provides free bug fixes or security patches for Java SE 8. You must buy a Java Subscription to get updates from Oracle.

Licensing facts: 
Oracle’s free support for past, current and future commercial distributions of Java SE (Oracle JDK) ended on January 15, 2019. To get critical bug fixes and security patches for Java SE after January, Oracle customers can purchase a support subscription for past and current releases of Java. See below Oracle’s Java SE Support Roadmap. See https://www.oracle.com/support/lifetime-support/ for definitions of Premier/Extended/Sustaining support.

Oracle's Java SE Support Roadmap
Release
GA Date
Premier Support Ends
Extended Support Ends
Sustaining Support
6
2006-12
2015-12
2018-12
Indefinite
7
2011-07
2019-07
2022-07
Indefinite
8
2014-03
2022-03
2025-03
Indefinite
9
2017-09
2018-03
Not Available
Indefinite
10
2018-03
2018-09
Not Available
Indefinite
11 (LTS)
2018-09
2023-09
2026-09
Indefinite
12
2019-03
2019-09
Not Available
Indefinite

Oracle’s licensing, support subscription model, and release cadence:
·         Oracle is increasing the cadence of releases from one major release every 3 years to one feature release every 6 months. Java 11, released in September, is a major release. Java 8 was the last major release.
·         Oracle will continue to provide free support for the open source Java distribution, OpenJDK – but organizations must be prepared to upgrade in every 6 months. Oracle will publish free bug fixes and security updates to open JDK but only to current release.
·         Organizations that are unwilling to upgrade in every 6 months have the option of using Oracle JDK (commercial license) or staying with an older version (Java SE 8) and purchasing a Java Subscription.
·         Going forward, Oracle will offer Long Term Support (LTS) for periodic releases (comparable to a major releases) – e.g., Oracle will provide LTS for Oracle JDK 11 and Oracle JDK 17 (due out in 2021). Oracle will not provide long term support for any of the intermediate releases – Java 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, etc. 

  • Oracle offers two Java Subscriptions — one for desktops (licensed by Named User at USD 2.50/user/month) and one for servers (licensed by Processor at USD 25/processor/month). You must license all machines where the JRE is installed. Volume discounts apply (see below). Per Oracle’s pricing list (http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/pricing/price-lists/java-se-subscription-pricelist-5028356.pdf): 
    • Named User Plus: is defined as an individual authorized by you to use the programs which are installed on a single server or multiple servers (“server” = desktop computer) regardless of whether the individual is actively using the programs at any given time. A non-human operated device will be counted as a named user plus in addition to all individuals authorized to use the programs, if such devices can access the programs. 
    • Processor shall be defined as all processors where the Oracle programs are installed and/or running. Programs licensed on a processor basis may be accessed by your internal users (including agents and contractors) and by your third-party users. The number of required licenses shall be determined by multiplying the total number of cores of the processor by a core processor licensing factor specified on the Oracle Processor Core Factor Table which can be accessed at http://oracle.com/contracts. 
    • Published volume discount rates for Java SE Subscription (for servers):
      • 1-99 — $25/processor/month (full price) $300/yr.
      • 100-249 — $23.75 (5% discount) $285/yr.
      • 250-499 — $22.50 (10% discount) $270/yr.
      • 500-999 — $20.00 (20% discount) $240/yr.
      • 1,000-2,999 — $17.50 (30% discount) $210/yr.
      • 3,000-9,999 — $15.00 (40% discount) $180/yr.
      • 10,000-19,999 — $12.50 (50% discount) $144/yr. 
      • 20,000+ — negotiable 
    • Published volume discount rates for Java SE Desktop Subscription (for desktops): 
      • 1-999 — $2.50/user/month (full price) $30/yr.
      • 1,000-2,999 — $2.00 (20% discount) $24/yr.
      • 3,000-9,999 — $1.75 (30% discount) $21/yr.
      • 10,000-19,999 — $1.50 (40% discount) $18/yr.
      • 20,000-49,000 — $1.25 (50% discount) $15/yr. 
      • 50,000+ — negotiable 
  • Oracle provides limited support for Java SE if you have licensed other Oracle products that require Java SE. Customers are entitled, without the need to separately purchase Oracle Java SE Support, to do the following:
    • Download and use Java SE updates, patches, and tools for use with the licensed Oracle product. Customers are entitled to download only the Java SE versions that are required by their Oracle product.
    • Install and use Java SE updates, patches, and tools to develop or deploy their Oracle product.
    • File service requests for Java issues against their Oracle product, but not directly against Java SE.
  • Other application vendors, including SAP, may offer a similar support agreement, if they provide their own JDK distribution. Very few do. Check with your vendors.
    • SAP provides its own Java SE implementation, SAP JVM — Java SE 8 compatible
    • SAP BusinessObjects Java Viewer (which relies on Java Web Start) will not work past Java 8
    • IBM provides its own Java SE implementation in many of its products, like WebSphere and DB2
Alternative sources for Java distributions and support:
  • You can get Java from numerous vendors that provide distributions based on OpenJDK, including:
  • You can get Java from numerous vendors that provide distributions based on OpenJDK, including:
    • AdoptOpenJDK with HotSpot JVM or with IBM’s OpenJ9 JVM (GPL2+2, current and past releases, as long as other vendors [IBM, Azul, SAP] produce the patches; community support for Java 8 is planned until 2022). Note that AdoptOpenJDK is not a certified distribution. See https://adoptopenjdk.net/. 
    • Azul Zulu (certified commercial build of OpenJDK with paid support, or free certified community edition, promising 8 years support for major releases, including Java 6 support until 2019, Java 7 support until 2023, Java 8 support until 2026, and Java 11 support until 2027). Azul also offers mid-term support for some feature releases (Java 9 until 2020 and Java 13 until 2022). See Azul’s support roadmap: https://www.azul.com/products/azul_support_roadmap. Prices range from standard support for 25 systems for $13,200/year to unlimited premium support for $341,500/year. See Azul Zulu Enterprise pricing: https://www.azul.com/products/pricing/.
    • Red Hat certified OpenJDK builds for RHEL (commercial product with paid support – supports JDK 7 until 2020, and JDK 8 until 2023, and JDK 11 until 2026.)  Red Hat distributes OpenJDK builds for Windows that are supported for development of applications that work in conjunction with JBoss middleware for deployment on RHEL. Red Hat also offers paid support for OpenJDK 8 and 11 on Windows. See https://access.redhat.com/articles/1299013. Red Hat’s distribution includes support for Java Web Start via the IcedTea-Web open source implementation. See https://icedtea.classpath.org/wiki/IcedTea-Web.
    • IBM provides and supports its own certified JDK 8 on its various OSes through 2022 (updates provided via OS update process) and offers paid support for AdoptOpenJDK with Open J9 JVM. See https://www.ibm.com/us-en/marketplace/support-for-runtimes.  
    • Amazon provides a free certified distribution of OpenJDK 8, Corretto, available for Linux, Windows, and MacOS. Amazon will provide free quarterly updates for JDK 8 until at least June 2023. (Updates include performance enhancements and security patches. Amazon doesn’t provide on-call support.) Amazon plans to release Corretto 11 (compatible with OpenJDK 11) in the first half of 2019. See https://docs.aws.amazon.com/corretto/latest/corretto-8-ug/what-is-corretto-8.html and https://aws.amazon.com/corretto/faqs/.   
    • Other Linux distros include OpenJDK, including Arch, Debian, Fedora, SUSE, and Ubuntu (previous versions available, updates provided via OS update process). See https://wiki.openjdk.java.net/display/Build/Supported+Build+Platforms
    • Most PaaS providers included a curated JDK platform. E.g., Azure includes Azul Zulu, AWS Elastic Beanstalk and Lambda include Amazon Corretto, Pivotal provides an OpenJDK build with Pivotal Cloud Foundry. (Because of “field of use” restrictions in the Oracle Java SE license agreements, you shouldn’t deploy Oracle’s commercial distributions on IaaS. You definitely want to use a third-party distribution.)
  • One MAJOR restriction with OpenJDK is support for applets and Java Web Start. These technologies are not included in OpenJDK. They are proprietary add-on features in Oracle's commercial distribution, and Oracle Java SE 8 is the last version that supports them in a production environment. They have been dropped from Java 11 altogether. But you do have an option: The IcedTea-Web open source project (sponsored by Red Hat) also supports applets and Java Web Start. Red Hat’s OpenJDK distribution for Windows includes IcedTea-Web. You may also be able to use IcedTea-Web with other OpenJDK distributions.
Recommendations:
You have three choices:
  1. Run unsupported older version java (Not recommended at all)
  2. Pay Oracle 
  3. Find an alternate source for a JDK or JRE distribution and for either commercial or community support.
 What you should do now:
  • Immediately identify every application that uses Java SE. Oracle provides a tool called Java Usage Tracker in their Java SE commercial products -- but you need to have licensed it to use the tool.
  • For each application, determine the application provider, what version of Java it uses, whether it requires a specific Java distribution, what operating system it runs on, and whether it’s running on a desktop or server.
    • If Oracle is the application provider (e.g., WebLogic, Oracle Financials), you can get support for Oracle JDK through your Oracle application support agreement.
    • If SAP is the application provider, you can get support for SAP JVM through your SAP application support agreement.
    • If the application runs on RHEL, you can get support for OpenJDK through your RHEL support agreement.
    • If the application runs on an IBM OS, you can get support for OpenJDK through you IBM OS support agreement.
    • If none of the above, you will need to select a Java provider (Oracle, Azul, OpenJDK, AdoptOpenJDK, Amazon, Red Hat -Windows) 
  • Determine whether you are comfortable relying on the OpenJDK community support model and whether you are willing to upgrade Java every six months. If so, upgrade as many applications as is reasonable to Java 11, be prepared to upgrade every 6 months, and go with OpenJDK with community support. (You will still need a support option for those applications that remain on Java 8.)
  • If you prefer to subscribe to commercial support or aren’t willing to adopt the six-month upgrade cadence, identify a support provider for long term support for Java 11 (Oracle, Azul, or community support via AdoptOpenJDK).
  • For those applications that require an older version of Java, identify a distributor and support provider (Oracle, Azul, Amazon, or AdoptOpenJDK) or run unsupported (not recommended). 
  • If you are going with a provider other than Oracle, you will need to replace Oracle Java SE and/or Oracle JDK with OpenJDK or another distribution on all desktops and servers.
  • If you don’t intend to buy the Oracle Java Subscription, immediately disable auto-update on all copies of Oracle Java SE.  
Some useful links:
Oracle Support Life Cycle: 
https://www.oracle.com/support/lifetime-support/  
Oracle’s Binary Code License (for Java SE 8):
https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/terms/license/index.html  
Oracle’s OTN license (for Java SE 11 - limited to dev and test):
https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/terms/license/javase-license.html   
Oracle’s licensing FAQ: 
https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/overview/faqs-jsp-136696.html  
Oracle’s licensing information user manuals: 
https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/documentation/java-se-lium-2018-06-21-4892263.pdf (Java 8, 9, 10)
https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/documentation/jdk11-lium-2018-09-20-5106626.pdf  (Java 11)
Here is an Oracle blog entry that describes many of the licensing changes:
https://blogs.oracle.com/java-platform-group/faster-and-easier-use-and-redistribution-of-java-se
Here is a link that describes free personal use support for Java 8 through 2020 but free commercial support ending in 2019
https://www.java.com/en/download/release_notice.jsp
Here is a link to a whitepaper on Oracle's client-side road map for java...
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/javaclientroadmapupdate2018mar-4414431.pdf
Here are links to other Oracle notes about this licensing change:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/eol-135779.html
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/eol-135779.html
https://www.oracle.com/java/java9-screencasts.html?bcid=5582439790001&playerType=single-social&size=events 
https://community.oracle.com/docs/DOC-1011529 
Here is a link to the recent Java SE Subscription plan from Oracle:
https://www.oracle.com/java/java-se-subscription.html  
http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/pricing/price-lists/java-se-subscription-pricelist-5028356.pdf  
https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javaseproducts/overview/javasesubscriptionfaq-4891443.html
Here are links to AdoptOpenJDK:
https://adoptopenjdk.net/
https://hub.docker.com/r/adoptopenjdk/
Here are links to Azul:
https://www.azul.com/downloads/zulu/
https://www.azul.com/java-stable-secure-free-choose-two-three/
https://www.azul.com/products/zulu-and-zulu-enterprise/zulu-enterprise-java-support-options/
https://www.azul.com/products/azul_support_roadmap  
https://www.azul.com/products/pricing/  
Here are links to Redhat's Java support policies:
https://access.redhat.com/articles/1299013
https://access.redhat.com/articles/3409141  
Here are links to IBM's Java support policies:
https://developer.ibm.com/javasdk/support/lifecycle/
https://www.ibm.com/uk-en/marketplace/support-for-runtimes
SAP JVM - SE 8 compatible — documentation:
https://help.sap.com/viewer/65de2977205c403bbc107264b8eccf4b/Cloud/en-US/7613c8c7711e1014839a8273b0e91070.html 
SAP’s advisory regarding SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence Java Viewer (i.e. Java Applet):
https://apps.support.sap.com/sap/support/knowledge/preview/en/2656446 

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