Public updates for Java 7 — including bug and security fixes — will end this month, a situation that one security advocate says could impact millions of applications.
Oracle released Java SE 7 in July 2011; Java SE 8 was released in March 2014. Java, particularly on the client side, has been beset by security issues in recent years. But Oracle has taken many steps to address the issues and stressed that most of the problems dated back several years, before Oracle took over Java from Sun in 2010.
Still, the impact of Oracle’s cessation of public updates could be severe, an official at security firm Waratek, believes. Oracle’s “rapid” end-of-life schedule for Java versions is great for innovation and language evolution, Waratek CTO John Matthew Holt said in an emailed statement.
