Java Ecosystem Updates: JDK 20/21, GraalVM, Spring, Quarkus, Micronaut, and More

OpenJDK

Oracle Java language and tools team member Angelos Bimpoudis updated JEP Draft 8288476 (patterns, instanceof, and switch with primitive types) as part of the Amber project, proposing primitive types in patterns to enhance pattern matching.

Alex Buckley updated JEP Draft 8300684, suggesting a review of the preview process introduced by JEP 12 for continuous improvement.

Wang Jun updated JEP Draft 8301034 (Key Encapsulation Mechanism API), recommending pluggable KEM algorithms in Java or native implementations to satisfy standard KEM use cases.

Archie Cobbs updated JEP Draft 8300786, also part of Amber, allowing statements that do not reference the instance being created to appear before this() or super() calls while preserving constructor safety.

JDK 20

Mark Reinhold announced that JDK 20 entered Ramp‑down Phase Two, indicating a stable GA release scheduled for March 2023, with critical bugs fixable via the Fix‑Request process.

The final six features of JDK 20 are:

JEP 429: Scoped Values (incubator)

JEP 432: Record Patterns (second preview)

JEP 433: Pattern Matching for switch (fourth preview)

JEP 434: Foreign Function & Memory API (second preview)

JEP 436: Virtual Threads (second preview)

JEP 437: Structured Concurrency (second incubator round)

Early‑access Build 33 was released, containing updates and fixes over Build 32; details are in the release notes.

JDK 21

Early‑access Build 7 for JDK 21 is available, including updates and fixes over Build 6; developers can report bugs to the Java Bug Database.

GraalVM

Oracle released GraalVM 22.3.1 Community Edition, aligning with the January 2023 Oracle Critical Patch Update, and includes OpenJDK 19.0.2, 17.0.6, 11.0.18, and Node.js 16.18.1 updates.

TornadoVM

TornadoVM 0.15 introduces a new TornadoVM API, renames TaskSchedule to TaskGraph, adds ImmutableTaskGraph and TornadoExecutionPlan for optimizing immutable task‑graph execution, and improves the Linux installer, launch script, and documentation site.

Spring Framework

Spring Cloud Azure 5.0, supporting Spring Boot 3.0 and Spring Cloud 2022.0.0, enhances password‑less security and redesigns documentation, while also updating deprecated APIs.

Spring Shell 3.0.0 and 2.1.6 were released, compatible with Spring Boot 3.0.2 and 2.7.8 respectively, fixing back‑port errors and improving handling of positional parameters and collection types.

Spring Cloud 2022.0.1 (code‑named Kilburn) was released, along with aligned updates to Spring Cloud Function, Commons, and Gateway, compatible with Spring Boot 3.0.2.

Quarkus

Quarkus 2.16.0.Final adds Redis time‑series support, gRPC custom exception handling, xDS, and security‑related developer‑experience improvements; Quarkus 3.0.0 alpha 3 brings Jakarta EE 10 updates, SmallRye Mutiny 2.0, Java Flow API, and simplified Kotlin class‑loader handling.

Micronaut

Micronaut 3.8.3 was released, fixing bugs and updating modules such as Micronaut OpenAPI and Micronaut Oracle Cloud.

JobRunr

JobRunr 6.0, a Java background‑task helper, was released with Spring Boot 3.0 support, a builder‑style Job Builders API, job labels visible in the dashboard, multi‑scheduler instances with different table prefixes, dependency updates, and performance improvements.

MicroStream

MicroStream 8.0 preview introduces JDK 11 support while retaining JDK 8 compatibility, read‑only mode for multi‑process access, experimental ArrayList/HashMap/HashSet implementations with shared mechanisms, and better integration with Spring Boot and Quarkus.

Hibernate

Hibernate ORM 6.2 second candidate release incorporates numerous bug fixes, stabilizing the SQL AST parser and adding support for the SQL MERGE command on optional tables.

Apache Software Foundation

Apache Tomcat 10.1.5 was released with regression fixes, HTTP/2 NO_ERROR handling, and a default change for GET_CLASSLOADER_USE_PRIVILEGED.

Apache Groovy 4.0.8 and 2.5.21 were released, bringing bug fixes, JaCoCo coverage improvements, and ASM 9.4 upgrades.

Camel Quarkus 2.16.0 was released, aligning with Camel 3.20.1 and Quarkus 2.16.0.Final, and adding support for JavaShell, Kotlin, Groovy, and jOOR DSLs.

JDKMon

JDKMon 17.0.45, a JDK monitoring and update tool by Azul engineer Gerrit Grunwald, was released with a fix for download‑dialog issues.

Community Events

Foojay.io announced participation in FOSDEM 2023, providing a developer space for OpenJDK community discussions.