I disagree with your statement that "most of the industry" is on... In realitiy most of the industry is still on the same version that the software was first developed on. I would say very few new projects are started on Java 8. As of early 2025, approximately 23% of organizations were still using Java 8, down from 40% in 2023, indicating a gradual migration to newer versions. DEVCLASS More on reddit.com

When I go to java.com to download the Java Runtime Environment (JRE), the latest version I can find there is Java 8, which was released 10 years ago and has already hit its "End of Public Updates" date. There are 3 (soon to be 4) LTE releases that are newer than version 8, so why does java.com ... More on stackoverflow.com

Because they switched to a new release model which allows for them to get new features out faster. Same thing happened when Firefox and chrome switched to a timed release model. People bitched about version numbers but slowly got use to the fact that "I don't really care that this is firefox 82". From an organization standpoint, this has been great for the Java getting features out. It used to be that they'd say "Ok, we are going to target key feature X for java Y". The problem with that is nearly all project development got devoted to that feature and ultimately "when" java would go out was completely unknown. Further, releases where crazy times for JDK developers. With the new model, they've been able to work on a lot more features in parallel. A ton of usability features made it in (records, pattern matching, string literals) which never would have made it in the old model. Further, it's allowed them to slowly walk in huge features (Valhalla, loom, etc) making pre-emptive changes needed to support massive changes in the future. Post Java 9, the upgrades have been a breeze. Honestly, I almost wish they'd move to an even faster release model to really force people to stop caring so much about these version numbers. Rust does a release every 6 weeks and I think that works great. Nobody cares that it's now Rust 1.50 or whatever. More on reddit.com

While LTS here really is "Oracle's LTS" (if you've purchased support), other vendors and dominant frameworks do tend align their support and compatibility commitments along the same lines (eg Spring 6, soon to be released has Java 17 as the baseline). Oracles currently supported 'LTS' versions Java 8 (Mar 2014) Java 11 (Sep 2018) Java 17 (Sep 2021) Next Oracle LTS Java 21 (Sep 2023) And planned to be every two years (4 releases) - so Java 25, Java 29, Java 33, ... The current release is Java 18 (Mar 2022) and Java 19 will be out in the next three weeks or so. In terms of which of these releases will be the next "Java 8" (the release that people struggle to leave behind)? Hopefully none. Hopefully developers and frameworks have learned to be more proactive about planning and testing the path forward. This is especially important as now features are released 'when they are ready', not when a whole lot of features are completed and bundled up into a multi-year release. So now we're getting frequent feature releases on a 6-monthly release cycle. Additionally these features are arriving with better community feedback thanks to early access and preview features - so tooling in IDEs is usually already ready for them on or before release day. There are already good reasons for wanting to move to Java 17 (or even 18) - many library and platform improvements and several language improvements. Java 19 is not so compelling in terms of release features (but the preview features)... ...but Java 20 or 21 could be a major release with the stabilisation of virtual-threads. Certainly I think there'll be a strong incentive for teams to adopt Java 23 soon after it arrives (major new features since Java 17 and being the next LTS that libraries will align on). Several surveys over the last year or two now show a majority of teams working with Java releases newer than Java 8 (though many of those same teams still also have one or more legacy code-bases in Java 8) - so where the choice is available and viable for the product, teams have already moved on from Java 8 or have it in their sights. Of course there will always be legacy projects that never move, staying on Java 8 well past 2030 when even the longest support agreements die off. Do you really want to work on those projects? More on reddit.com