This latest version of Java, due to arrive as a production release on September 16, has 18 features. JDK 25 comes on the heels of JDK 24, a six-month-support release that arrived March 18.

JDK 21's virtual threads are a major leap forward for Java's concurrency model. Previously, Java relied on OS threads, which were resource-heavy, limiting how many threads could run concurrently.

Oracle pointed to its decision last year to accelerate the release schedule for the Java SE Platform and the JDK as part of the motivation for the separation. That accelerated release cadence provides ...