Java 9 Release Date Now March, 2017

Java 9 has been delayed again.  The release date for the eagerly awaited Jigsaw has now been officially declared as landing in March 2017.

Why the Delay?

The team behind the new version of Java, are taking the extra months to make sure the final version has as many bugs and issues fixed before release.  That means another Christmas will have come and gone by the time the final version is released. The developers at Oracle don’t want to release Jigsaw with rough edges, as apparently happened with Java 8.

The new date will probably come as no surprise to anyone who has followed the project from the beginning. The Jigsaw project’s release date has been delayed on numerous occasions. Looking back ow the 2-year cycle for Java releases does, in hindsight, now look incredibly optimistic.

Despite this the new version of Java is being keenly anticipated in the Software industry. Unlike when Java 8 was released however, Jigsaw is at least still visible on the horizon.

Java 9? What’s new?

Jigsaw will differ from all the previous versions of Java. The clue is in the name, ‘Jigsaw.’ The aim of the project is to make Java modular and, allow for the JRE to be scaled and broken down into separate parts that will be interoperable with each other. This will hopefully allow for scaled down runtime JAR. This will then allow developers to customize Java and only use the components they actually need for projects.

The upshot of all that is that Jigsaw will be scalable in a fashion it has never been before, allowing smaller, less powerful devices to run it effectively, as well as improving overall performance and security.

While some external developers have voiced dismay at this latest delay, there has been general consensus among the community that getting Java 9 right is more important than getting it out on time.