Detaching Graalvm From the Java Ecosystem Train

Posted3 months agoActive3 months ago

teajunky

30 points

14 comments

blogs.oracle.comTechstory

controversialnegative

Debate

80/100

GraalvmJavaOracle

Key topics

Graalvm

Java

Oracle

Oracle announces the detachment of GraalVM from the Java ecosystem, sparking concerns and confusion among developers about the project's future and licensing.

Snapshot generated from the HN discussion

Discussion Activity

Moderate engagement

First comment

33m

Peak period

0-2h

Avg / period

2.8

Comment distribution14 data points

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Based on 14 loaded comments

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01Story posted
Sep 28, 2025 at 11:56 AM EDT
3 months ago
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Sep 28, 2025 at 12:29 PM EDT
33m after posting
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8 comments in 0-2h
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04Latest activity
Sep 29, 2025 at 6:58 AM EDT
3 months ago
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Discussion (14 comments)

Showing 14 comments

reactordev

3 months ago

1 reply

Surprise! Oracle doesn’t care about Java… (not a surprise)

gf000

3 months ago

Yeah, the company employing almost every OpenJDK developer surely doesn't care about Java...

k_bx

3 months ago

2 replies

Can someone explain, do they ditch the project, or do they move it elsewhere? It's hard to understand from the announcement. I need to compile java to native binary to not have to install runtime on my servers for the small service I use.

vips7L

3 months ago

1 reply

It’s poorly worded. Graal and NI aren’t going anywhere. The wording is this:

“Native Image, is being discontinued for Java SE Product customers"

That means that it will no longer be included as a product for the OracleJdk that you would pay and subscribe to (which no sane person actually does).

k_bx

3 months ago

Ah, I see. Another thing I would expect normal announcement to include is the command I need to run instead of graaldb

k_bx

3 months ago

Also, why would they do that? I mean, I understand adding more languages, I understand stopping the project. But killing Java and adding other langs? Why?

vips7L

3 months ago

1 reply

This was discussed over on /r/java when it came out. The tl;dr is that it’s a poorly worded blog post about the OracleJdk (the one you pay and subscribe to). Graal isn’t going anywhere.

https://www.reddit.com/r/java/comments/1niamuc/detaching_gra...

pron

3 months ago

1 reply

You don't need to pay to use Oracle JDK. It is free for commercial use. You pay for a support subscription, bought separately.

fanf2

3 months ago

1 reply

There are lots of news stories in recent years about Oracle sending lawyers round to demand money from orgs both commercial and non-commercial who are using Oracle Java SE, eg https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/09/users_advised_to_revi...

pron

3 months ago

Auditing is only for paying customers of commercial products who've agreed to it in their contract. There's obviously nothing to pay for because the JDK is free. Oracle doesn't even collect contact information when downloading the JDK.

What could be happening there is that an Oracle customer uses their customer account to get access to a non-free JDK, such as an update that isn't offered on the public website because it's past the free update period.

jonstewart

3 months ago

1 reply

Kinda reads like the Graal team lost a battle to the Java team, and now Graal must content itself with JavaScript and Python. But, like, who is going to use Oracle anything for JS and Python?

gf000

3 months ago

I think it's more like just a team organization change, nothing more.

altmind

3 months ago

1 reply

| GraalVM for JDK 24 was the final GraalVM release licensed and supported as part of Oracle Java SE Products. Customers requiring further updates to legacy GraalVM versions should download them via Oracle Support.

Huh, that sounded to me that there won't be any new free graalvm versions? Sounds like a death record for a project.

CharlesW

3 months ago

> Huh, that sounded to me that there won't be any new free graalvm versions?

Based on, "The GraalVM team are transitioning to focus on non-Java Graal Languages" and other statements, there will be new free GraalVM versions, but its support for Java has been paused (and will surely be removed, someday), and using it for Java will be discouraged.

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