Why Java 17’s Free Oracle JDK Could Spark a Massive Upgrade Wave

Java 17 Released as LTS

Java 17, the latest long‑term‑support (LTS) version, has been officially released, bringing a set of new language and JVM features.

Oracle Offers Free JDK

Oracle now provides its industry‑leading Oracle JDK free of charge for both commercial and production use under the “Oracle Free Terms and Conditions” (NFTC) license. The key points are:

All quarterly security updates are included at no cost.

The NFTC license permits unrestricted use, redistribution and commercial deployment, provided no fee is charged for the JDK itself.

Developers can download, use, share and redistribute the JDK without additional steps.

Free updates will be supplied for Oracle JDK 17 and will continue for a full year after the next LTS release; earlier versions are unaffected.

Oracle will keep delivering OpenJDK builds under the GPL on the same schedule as since Java 9.

Spring Framework Aligns with Java 17

Spring’s core team has announced that Spring Framework 6 and Spring Boot 3, scheduled for release next year, will be built on Java 17, encouraging developers to migrate from older Java versions.

The combination of a free, fully supported JDK and upcoming Spring releases is expected to trigger a wave of Java 17 upgrades across the ecosystem.