Policy

Fedora will compile/produce artifacts that run on a publicly supported version of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). Only after a JVM version has been end of lifed will Fedora take advantage of the next more current Java's version features.

Where:

Publicly supported

• Is defined as a Java version that has passed its "general availability" date, as specified by Oracle's support roadmap.

End of Lifed

• Is defined as a Java version that has passed its "end of public updates" date, as specified by Oracle's support roadmap.

Example 1

• Java8 was released on March, 2014.
• Java7 will be EOL'd on April, 2015. 

Fedora 4 will build/run on Java7 until April, 2015. After April, 2015, Fedora 4 will require a Java8 JVM.

Example 2

In the above example, if Java9 were also (hypothetically) released on June, 2014...

• Java9 was released on June, 2014.
• Java8 was released on March, 2014.
• Java7 will be EOL'd on April, 2015. 

Fedora 4 will build/run on Java8 until either Java8 is EOL'd, or Java10 is released, whichever comes first. After either of the two criterion are met, Fedora 4 would upgrade to Java9.