| Java 1.0 | original release, 1996 | JDK |
| Java 1.1 | first upgrade. 1997. JDK | JDK |
| Java 1.2 | huge improvement. 1998. Called Java 2! added Swing classes for GUI SE means Standard Edition as opposed to J2EE (enterprise edition), J2ME, JavaFX, etc. |
J2SE |
| Java 1.3 | system improvements, 2000. Called Java 2, version 1.3 | J2SE |
| Java 1.4 | more improvements. 2001. Called Java 2, version 1.4 | J2SE |
| Java 1.5 | released in 2004. Called Java 1.5.0 and Java 5.0 !!! |
J2SE |
| Java 6 | released in 2006. Also called Java 1.6.0 latest version is update 30: Java SE 6u30 |
JSE (not J2SE) |
| Java 7 | released July 2011. (probably also called 1.7.0) latest version is update 67: Java SE 7u67 |
Java SE Oracle buys Sun and takes over Java OpenJDK begins (free) |
| Java 8 | released March 2014. (probably also called 1.8.0) added lambda expressions will not work on Windows XP Java 8u202 is the last free version (for commercial use) It will be supported by Oracle indefinitely! |
Java SE |
| Java 9 - 10 | ||
| Java 11 | released September 2018 JavaFX dropped from JDK LTS (longterm support release) Java 11 is (mostly) free | OracleJDK and OpenJDK now have the same features |
| Java 12 - 16 | ||
| Java 17 | released September 2021 LTS (longterm support release) Oracle makes Java free again to everyone | |
| Java 18 - 19 |
So you can now see why Oracle JDK versions 8, 11, and 17(?) are the ones most in use.
Oracle JDK is faster and more stable than OpenJDK (https://www.baeldung.com/oracle-jdk-vs-openjdk)
Most commercial Java programs use Java Enterprise Edition. After learning Java SE, one would need to learn Java EE, especially "Spring Boot".
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