With its ninth version, the Java platform has shifted gear and introduced biyearly releases. This was quickly followed by a license change where Oracle, the steward of Java, now publishes a commercial and a non-commercial release of the OpenJDK while other vendors also took more space to promote their alternative builds. And in another flood of news, the Java EE specification was terminated and resolved into the Jakarta EE namespace.

A lot has been happening in the traditionally conservative Java ecosystem, to say the least, and many users are wondering if they can still rely on the platform. This talk offers orientation to those that wonder about the state of Java, explains the OpenJDK project including its builds and licensing and summarizes the changes that have been, that to expect and why the change of pace is good news to the community.