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Oracle vs OpenJDK

A. Sathyanarayanan
Article byA. Sathyanarayanan
Priya Pedamkar
Reviewed byRavi Rathore

Updated June 22, 2023

Oracle vs OpenJDK

 

 

Difference Between Oracle vs OpenJDK

Oracle JDK was released in the form of a binary product. It supports multiple operating systems like Windows, Linux, Solaris, MacOS, etc. It supports different platforms such as Intel 32 bit and 64-bit architectures, ARM architectures and SPARC.  It was written using C++ and Java Programming languages. OpenJDK is an open-source and free implementation of the Java SE Platform Edition. OpenJDK supports different operating systems like FreeBSD, Linux, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X. OpenJDK is an official reference implementation of Java SE Platform Edition.

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Oracle

Oracle JDK was developed by Oracle Corporation which was under Sun License and was implemented based on the Java Standard Edition Specification.  It was completely based on Java programming language. Later the license was announced to be released under GPL (General Public License) License. Oracle JDK contains many components as a collection of programming tools in the form of a library.

OpenJDK

OpenJDK is an open-source and free implementation of the Java SE Platform Edition which is the result of the developments made by Sun Corporation (now Oracle Corporation) which was started in the year 2006. It was licensed under the GNU GPL license. It was initially released in the year 2007. It was developed by Oracle Corporation, Red Hat, IBM, Apple Inc., OpenJDK & Java Community, etc.

Head to Head Comparison Between Oracle and OpenJDK (Infographics)

Below is the top 8 difference between Oracle and OpenJDK:

Oracle vs OpenJDK Infographics

Key Difference Between Oracle and OpenJDK

Both Oracle vs OpenJDK are popular choices in the market; let us discuss some of the major Differences Between Oracle and OpenJDK:

  1. Oracle JDK releases will happen for every three years whereas OpenJDK release happens for every three months.
  2. Oracle JDK will concentrate more on the stability because it gives importance to more of its enterprise audience whereas Oracle JDK makes frequent releases to support additional performances and this may result in instability.
  3. Oracle JSK supports the changes in release for long-term whereas Open JDK supports only until the next release is planned and done.
  4. Oracle JDK is licensed under Binary code license agreement whereas OpenJDK is licensed under GPL v2 license.
  5. The build process for the Oracle JDK is based on the OpenJDK, hence there is no technical difference between OpenJDK vs Oracle JDK.
  6. Oracle JDK is being used by the top companies in their tools like Android Studio, Minecraft and IntelliJ IDEA development tools where Open JDK is less preferred.
  7. Oracle JDK has Flight Recorder feature and Open JDK has Font Renderer feature which are the noticeable differences between OpenJDK vs Oracle JDK.
  8. Oracle JDK has good GC options and better renderers whereas OpenJDK has fewer GC options and has slower graphics renderer options because of its distribution which contains own renderers.
  9. Oracle JDK provides much better performance compared to the OpenJDK in terms of responsiveness and JVM performance.
  10. Oracle JDK has less open source community compared to the OpenJDK where OpenJDK community users outperform the features released by Oracle JDK to improve the performance.
  11. Oracle JDK has licensing implications if it is used whereas OpenJDK has no such kind of issues and can be used in any way which satisfies the completely open source and free usage.
  12. Oracle JDK does not create any issues while running JDK whereas OpenJDK produces some issues while running JDK for some of the users.
  13. The existing applications can be migrated from Oracle JDK to Open JDK and vice versa in terms of the usage and licensing agreements of the using party.
  14. Oracle JD is going to be paid version from its version 10.0.X plus where the users have to either pay or have to rely on OpenJDK to make use of its free version.
  15. Oracle JDK is not going to provide long-term support for its upcoming releases where the users have to go for latest release every time by staying updated to the latest versions to get support.
  16. Oracle JDK previous versions since 1.0 were developed by Sun and later acquired by Oracle and maintained for other releases whereas OpenJDK was initially based only on the Java SDK or JDK version 7.
  17. Oracle JDK was released with most of the features as open source with some features exempting from open sourcing and was licensed under Sun’s license whereas OpenJDK released all the features as open source and free.
  18. Oracle JDK was solely developed by Oracle corporation whereas the Open JDK project was joined and collaborated by top-notch companies such as IBM, Apple, SAP AG, Redhat etc.,

Oracle vs OpenJDK Comparison Table

Below is the topmost comparison between Oracle vs OpenJDK:

The basis of Comparison Between Oracle vs OpenJDK Oracle JDK OpenJDK
License It was licensed under GPL (General Public License) License It was licensed under GNU GPL (General Public License) License
Development Developed by Sun Microsystems Inc. Developed by Oracle, OpenJDK & Java Community
Performance Provides performance as per Sun JDK’s development and implementation Provides high performance which was developed by some vendors on top of Oracle JDK
Scalability As per Sun’s implementation Can be improved using other libraries or on top of Oracle JDK
Pricing Sun’s Official implementation license Open Source and free implementation available for free use
Speed Normal as per JDK implementation Third party vendors will be improving the speed of JVM by making some tweaks
Operating System Supports Windows, Linux, Solaris, MacOS FreeBSD, Linux, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X
Ease of Use Can be used with any application development Can be used with any application development and other open source tools to improve the performance in open source implementation model.

Conclusion

Oracle JDK can be used to develop Java web applications, standalone applications, and many other Graphical User Interfaces along with other development tools. All the operations or tasks that are performed by Oracle JDK can also be performed by OpenJDK but only the difference between Oracle vs OpenJDK is that the licensing and other tools integration and implementation on top of the existing Oracle JDK by Open JDK. The advantages of using OpenJDK are that the performance, scalability, and implementation can be modified as per the requirement of the application to tune the Java Virtual Machine as required.

The advantages of OpenJDK are more and the usage of Oracle JDK also has some benefits in terms of standards used in the implementation of Oracle JDK which will ensure the applications to be stable and well maintained.

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