March 17, 2026
New Java, old grudges
Java 26 is here, and with it a solid foundation for the future
Java 26 drops: Applets buried, Android roasted, and “11th time’s the charm” jokes
TLDR: Java 26 lands with modest features and groundwork for bigger upgrades like Project Valhalla. Comments cheer the death of applets and easier threading while roasting Android’s slow updates and making “11th incubator” jokes—spotlighting Java’s momentum and the widening gap with a lagging mobile world.
Java 26 just arrived and the comments section went full fireworks. The release itself is a “smaller now, bigger later” move, hinting at future goodies like Project Valhalla. But the community energy? Equal parts celebration and chaos. One camp is partying over old baggage finally getting tossed, another is dragging Android for being perpetually late to the Java party.
Top cheer: Applet API is gone — the creaky browser plugin tech no one wanted to support. Linux veterans practically lit sparklers, with shout‑outs to IcedTea Web and relief that those corporate web app nightmares can stay in the past. Another crowd applauded Java’s new era of lightweight “virtual threads,” with one user praising that it doesn’t use confusing special async keywords, making concurrency feel normal again.
Meanwhile, the Android discourse got spicy. “Android is always in shambles,” one commenter groaned, while another demanded to know when Android will catch up and whether Google’s Kotlin love or the Oracle lawsuit is to blame. The day’s meme: Vector API is still experimental — for the 11th time — sparking “eleventh time’s the charm” jokes. Underneath the drama, there’s substance: faster web connections with HTTP/3, performance boosts in the engine, and the quiet hum of a platform gearing up for something big. Read the post here.
Key Points
- •Java 26 has been released with a curated set of JEPs spanning core libraries, HotSpot, security, and language features.
- •Performance-oriented HotSpot features include JEP 516 (Ahead-of-Time Object Caching with Any GC) and JEP 522 (G1 GC throughput improvements).
- •Core library enhancements include JEP 517 adding HTTP/3 support to the Java HTTP Client API.
- •Several features remain in preview/incubator: JEP 524 (PEM Encodings – second preview), JEP 525 (Structured Concurrency – sixth preview), JEP 526 (Lazy Constants – second preview), JEP 529 (Vector API – eleventh incubator), and JEP 530 (Primitive Types in patterns – fourth preview).
- •The release also includes JEP 500 (Prepare to Make Final Mean Final) and JEP 504 (Remove the Applet API), with the article noting status and changes since Java 25.