Java Version Details
| Version | Release Date | Key Features |
|---|---|---|
| Java 1.0 | January 1996 | Core APIs, Applets, AWT. |
| Java 1.1 | February 1997 | Inner Classes, JDBC, RMI, Reflection. |
| Java 1.2 | December 1998 | Swing, Collections, Java Plug-in. |
| Java 1.3 | May 2000 | HotSpot JVM, RMI over IIOP, Java Sound. |
| Java 1.4 | February 2002 | Assertions, NIO, Logging API. |
| Java 5 | September 2004 | Generics, Enums, Annotations, Concurrency. |
| Java 6 | December 2006 | Scripting API, Pluggable Annotation. |
| Java 7 | July 2011 | Try-with-resources, Fork-Join Framework. |
| Java 8 | March 2014 | Lambdas, Streams, New Date-Time API |
| Java 9 | September 2017 | Module System, JShell, HTTP/2 Client. |
| Java 10 | March 2018 | var (Local Variable Type Inference). |
| Java 11 | September 2018 | HTTP Client APIs, LTS Release. |
| Java 12 | March 2019 | Switch Expressions (Preview). |
| Java 13 | September 2019 | Text Blocks (Preview). |
| Java 14 | March 2020 | Records, Better NullPointer Messages. |
| Java 15 | September 2020 | Sealed Classes, Text Blocks Standardized. |
| Java 16 | March 2021 | Records Standardized, jpackage Tool. |
| Java 17 | September 2021 | Sealed Classes, Pattern Matching, LTS. |
| Java 18 | March 2022 | UTF-8 Default Charset, Simple Web Server. |
| Java 19 | September 2022 | Virtual Threads, Structured Concurrency. |
| Java 20 | March 2023 | Virtual Threads Enhancements. |
| Java 21 | September 2023 | String Templates, Sequenced Collections. |
Easy Recall.
1.x Versions - Basics (Core APIs, AWT, Swing, Collections).
Java 5-8 - Major milestones (Generics, Concurrency, Lambdas).
Modern Java (9+) - Modular system, incremental features every 6 months.
LTS Releases - 8, 11, 17, 21 (focus for production).