Why Jenkins is Moving to Java 11 (and Why You Should Upgrade to Java 17 Now)

Jenkins, the open‑source DevOps CI/CD tool, announced that beginning with the June 28 release of Jenkins 2.357 and the upcoming September LTS version, the platform will require Java 11 as the minimum runtime.

Originally called Hudson, Jenkins has been around for over a decade and has undergone several Java migrations since its inception in 2005; the current shift from Java 8 to Java 11 follows the same historical pattern.

Developer Basil Crow explained in his blog that while Jenkins might temporarily remain on Java 8, staying there would be detrimental because many critical third‑party libraries (e.g., Jetty, JGit, Spring Framework, Spring Security) now require newer Java versions, and remaining on Java 8 would block security updates from upstream projects.

Newer Java releases also bring significant runtime improvements: LinkedIn reported notable performance gains after moving to Java 11, Adoptium observed reduced memory usage, and recent Java runtimes include many garbage‑collection enhancements.

Maintaining a current Java version also helps Jenkins attract and retain developers.

The official Jenkins Docker image has been based on Java 11 for several months; Java 8 remains an optional fallback, while Java 17 is available in preview mode. Starting with Jenkins 2.357, the Java 8 image will be retired, and the Java 17 image will transition from preview to general availability.

The Jenkins team actually recommends users adopt Java 17:

Support for Java 17 is brand‑new and not yet widely adopted across the Jenkins community. Nevertheless, our experience shows Java 17 is a more reliable choice than Java 11 , and migrating from Java 11 to Java 17 is far less painful than moving from Java 8 to Java 11.

For more details, see the official Jenkins blog post: https://www.jenkins.io/blog/2022/06/28/require-java-11/