WeAreDevelopers Logo WeAreDevelopers
Sign in
For You LIVE
WeAreDevelopers LIVE • Sep 14, 2023

Beam Me Up, Java! Unraveling the Warp-Speed Evolution: A Journey through Java LTS Versions 11 to 21

Jonathan Vila

Still stuck on Java 8? Legacy code isn't safe. Upgrade to Java 21 to eliminate security debt and unlock game-changing virtual threads.

Pause
Mute Enter Fullscreen
#1 about 8 min

Risks of remaining on legacy Java versions

Production statistics highlight the dangers of missing bug patches and performance gains by staying on Java 8.

#2 about 6 min

Evaluating JDK distributions and vendor support

The shifting landscape of JDK providers requires assessing vendor-specific features and support lifecycles.

#3 about 4 min

Understanding the Java long-term support release cadence

Differing vendor approaches to long-term support dictate how migration planning aligns with updated release cycles.

#4 about 6 min

Productivity improvements and API updates in Java 11

Java 11 introduces a non-blocking HTTP client, single-file source code execution, and native TLS 1.3 support.

#5 about 18 min

Major language and productivity upgrades from Java 12 to 17

Enhancements across intermediate releases deliver helpful null pointer exceptions, text blocks, and record classes for immutability.

#6 about 4 min

Significant performance and language features launching in Java 21

Sequenced collections, virtual threads, and advanced switch pattern matching elevate performance and simplify expressive code logic.

#7 about 3 min

Strategic takeaways for continuous Java version migration

Consistently moving between long-term support versions ensures critical access to performance improvements and ongoing security patches.

#8 about 4 min

Finding career value in active developer communities

Active participation in tech communities accelerates learning curves and opens up valuable new professional engineering opportunities.

#9 about 4 min

The future of Java in modern web development

Assessing tools like Vaadin helps determine the feasibility of full-stack Java applications over complete JavaScript transitions.

#10 about 3 min

Addressing verbosity and missing features in modern Java

While record classes reduce boilerplate, the language could further benefit from implicit classes to streamline syntax.

#11 about 3 min

Overcoming cognitive friction when changing programming languages

Migrating to a different programming language requires consciously adapting to new syntax conventions and structural patterns.

#12 about 2 min

Virtual threads as the ultimate concurrency performance upgrade

Virtual threads solve traditional concurrency limitations by enabling millions of simultaneous operations without exhausting system resources.

Matching moments

2:03 min

Migrating applications from Java 11 to Java 17

Daniel Strmečki · LIVE

2:27 min

Summarizing the path forward for Java evolution

Michael Inden · LIVE

10:10 min

Java 16 and 17 release cadence and migration strategies

Mohamed Taman · LIVE

1:47 min

Reviewing modern Java features from version 12 to 17

Ron Veen Ron Veen · WWC 2022

3:37 min

Choosing Java 17 for modern Spring Boot applications

Josh Long · WWC 2022

4:55 min

Discussing modern Java language evolution and syntax innovations

Daniel Strmečki · LIVE

More from WeAreDevelopers LIVE

Aliens in Quarantine, Python Deprecates Loops, and AI Buys Old Books - Zbyszek Tenerowicz thumbnail
5:43
5 days ago

Aliens in Quarantine, Python Deprecates Loops, and AI Buys Old Books - Zbyszek Tenerowicz

Chris Heilmann, Daniel Cranney

WeAreDevelopers LIVE - Node and Package Security thumbnail
1:08:30
5 days ago

WeAreDevelopers LIVE - Node and Package Security

Chris Heilmann, Daniel Cranney, Zbyszek Tenerowicz

WeAreDevelopers LIVE - Streaming HTML thumbnail
1:10:26
12 days ago

WeAreDevelopers LIVE - Streaming HTML

Chris Heilmann, Daniel Cranney, Jad Joubran

WeAreDevelopers LIVE - CODE100 at WeAreDevelopers Europe thumbnail
1:02:34
19 days ago

WeAreDevelopers LIVE - CODE100 at WeAreDevelopers Europe

Chris Heilmann, Daniel Cranney, Justin Halsall, Werner Jeschko, Nicole Jeschko, Mirco Tomić

WeAreDevelopers LIVE - Web Performance in an AI World thumbnail
1:07:59
26 days ago

WeAreDevelopers LIVE - Web Performance in an AI World

Chris Heilmann, Daniel Cranney

FIFA Hack, Midjourney Does Ultrasounds, and Trampoline Traffic Lights - Nicole Jeschko and Werner Jeschko thumbnail
5:55
about 2 months ago

FIFA Hack, Midjourney Does Ultrasounds, and Trampoline Traffic Lights - Nicole Jeschko and Werner Jeschko

Chris Heilmann, Daniel Cranney

Upcoming sessions on this topic

Open session

World Congress 2026 North America

Look What Java Can Do Now: Live-Coding a GenAI MCP Server with the JAQ Stack

Suren Konathala

Senior Engineering Leader, Marketing & AdTech, AI GTM & Digital Experience Platforms, Java x AI

Suren Konathala
Open session

World Congress 2026 North America

When Humans Stop Writing Code: Rethinking Languages, Compilers, and Responsibility

Simon Auer

Organizer of flutter vienna meetup and CEO of marqably

Simon Auer
Open session

World Congress 2026 North America

From Legacy to Longevity – How a 17-Year-Old System stayed Modern

Alexander Arians

Empowering Engineers to drive innovation

Alexander Arians
Open session

World Congress 2026 North America

From Cloud Native to Multi-Cloud Native: Write Once, Deploy Anywhere

Sandeep Pal

Principal Member of Technical Staff at Salesforce

Sandeep Pal
Open session

World Congress 2026 North America

Stop Running Mystery Meat in Production

Jeroen van Erp

Technical Advocate @ SUSE

Jeroen van Erp
Open session

World Congress 2026 North America

Merging at Scale: From Broken Builds to Green Mainline

Manjari Akella, Preetam Dwivedi

Manjari Akella
Preetam Dwivedi

Related videos

The Cool Thing about Cool Things in Java 16 & 17 LTS thumbnail
1:11:05
LIVE • over 4 years ago

The Cool Thing about Cool Things in Java 16 & 17 LTS

Mohamed Taman

"What´s New for Developers Moving from Java 11 to 17?" thumbnail
47:15
LIVE • over 4 years ago

"What´s New for Developers Moving from Java 11 to 17?"

Daniel Strmečki

Best of Java 15 and beyond—my favorite features thumbnail
45:30
LIVE • over 5 years ago

Best of Java 15 and beyond—my favorite features

Michael Inden

The Evolution of Enterprise Java with Jakarta EE 11 and Beyond thumbnail
30:16
WWC 2025 • 12 months ago

The Evolution of Enterprise Java with Jakarta EE 11 and Beyond

Ivar Grimstad

Modern Java: This is not your father's Java anymore thumbnail
27:49
WWC 2023 • almost 3 years ago

Modern Java: This is not your father's Java anymore

Ron Veen

Modern Java thumbnail
30:21
WWC 2024 • almost 2 years ago

Modern Java

Ron Veen

Related articles

From learning to earning

Jobs that call for the skills explored in this talk.