Java news: Trends in 2024 – end of Java SE 11 LTS support, new versions 22 and 23

In the 28 years since its inception, Java has gained more than 9 million users and has become a popular cross-platform programming language. This is due to its versatile use from simple desktop applications, microservices, mobile applications to complex Enterprise business applications. In recent years, it has also seen its rise in the cloud, blockchain and, most recently, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) – based applications. Comprehensive libraries and frameworks exist for all of these areas, speeding up software development and making it easier to integrate.

The Java programming language is definitely one of the top three most in-demand programming languages on the job market today, with its fierce competition coming mainly from Python and, in the Android space, Kotlin. However, developers of new Enterprise applications will most often reach for Java, and there are a huge number of applications written in Java that will need to be updated with new features to remain relevant and attractive to demanding customers, so we dare say that the high demand for Java developers will persist in 2024, as in the previous year.

What can we expect in 2024 and what trends can we anticipate in various Java areas? Let’s take a look at it together.

A significant rise of Java SE 17 (LTS)

Although the Java 20 SDK and Java SE 21 LTS (with long-term support) were released last year, most companies are still using older versions of Java (namely Java 8 and 11) and are very reluctant to migrate to newer versions. This is due to the principle of “If it works, don’t change it” as well as the increased costs of migration. However, as the free support for Java SE 11 LTS ends this year (paid support will continue), many development companies will be under pressure to migrate their projects to a higher version of Java, which in return will bring them improvements in performance and security, as well as a lot of new features.

It is Java 17, which was released in September 2021, that will now be considered the minimum baseline, as it has brought many improvements and innovations, bug fixes and long-term free support until 2027. Read about Java SE 8 – SE 17 updates in our last article. However, if I were to personally upgrade to a newer version, I would choose last year’s Java SE 21 LTS to ensure free support until 2029.

As a point of interest, two new versions of Java 22 and 23 are scheduled for release this year.

Cloud computing trend

There’s no denying that cloud computing has changed the way Java looks today. Cloud computing offers a paid platform for hosting (not only) Java applications and allows scaling and allocation of hardware resources as needed. This trend of using cloud computing solutions has made cloud services such as AWS (Amazon Web Services) and Google Cloud Platform extremely popular for creating, deploying and managing Java applications today and this will certainly not change in 2024 as the number of users using modern cloud applications continues to grow.

Java enables developers to create scalable applications that take full advantage of the cloud, and technologies such as Kubernetes and Docker can be seamlessly integrated with Java frameworks.

Microservices

Speaking of scalability, it is microservices that have gained popularity due to the benefits of flexibility and faster time to market. The Java ecosystem also offers developers in this area robust frameworks to facilitate the development of microservices-based architectures, most notably Spring Boot and Micronaut.

Mobile applications

Although in the past Java was mainly used to implement business logic on the server side, or in the development of mobile applications for Android, this trend has started to change in recent years. Java with the introduction of frameworks such as React Native, Kotlin Multiplatform has made it possible for Java developers to move into the development of native multiplatform mobile applications that run on both competing mobile platforms iOS and Android.

DevOps

A relatively recent trend in software development is DevOps. It offers practices aimed at improving the efficiency of the integration process (CI – Continuous Integration) and software release (CD – Continuous Delivery). DevOps is particularly well suited for Java applications because of its strong support for tools such as Jenkins, Gradle, and Maven to streamline the software development lifecycle.

Machine Learning

Although in the past Java was seen as the main programming language for complex enterprise applications, its versatility has penetrated into other lesser-known areas such as into machine learning. Traditionally, Python has reigned supreme in this area, but with libraries like Deeplearning4j and Apache Mahout, developers are getting their hands on powerful tools aimed at analyzing quantum data, training complex data models, and developing intelligent applications. With its huge user base, it’s only a matter of time before Java conquers machine learning and reaches the level of Python.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

One of the most visible trends in information technology is the emergence of artificial intelligence, popularised by OpenAI with its ChatGPT chatbot. It is a fast and dynamic growing industry that has caused a similar uproar as the last time the Internet was introduced to the people. Companies see huge potential in deploying a variety of intelligent assistants in their business to help them optimize costs and increase productivity and efficiency of the work done. This will also result in job cuts or retraining for other positions.

Java, as one of the most widely used object-oriented programming languages, does not want to be left behind and libraries and frameworks for developing applications that take advantage of new AI technologies are already being developed. The advantage of Java is that it can run on any device due to its portability and platform independence, and this will be one of the reasons why AI developers will choose it as their main programming language.

Blockchain

All of us have probably heard of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, which use blockchain technology. This, along with AI, is one of the major trends that could change information technology as we now know it forever. Although blockchain is primarily dominated by C, Go, Rust on the server side and JavaScript on the client side, a number of developers have recently switched to Java (article on the differences between Java vs. Javascript). It owes this to the huge community of users, the available documentation, but above all to the frameworks being developed focused on blockchain technologies. Whether it’s Corda, Pantheon, Bitcoinj, Web3j and others, it’s already possible to build Java projects focused on this area today without starting from scratch.

2024 in msg life Slovakia

The trend in msg life Slovakia for 2024 is clear. We are looking for skilled Java programmers who would like to work in a company where cooperation is based on a family friendly atmosphere, where every one of us matters and the basis of success is happy employees (see our employee benefits). Our commitment is further underscored by our 7th place ranking in the 2023 Employer of the Year survey.

If you are interested in working for a company that follows current IT trends, educates the Java community on msgprogramtor.sk blog, focuses on clean and efficient code, choose from our currently open job offers. Don’t worry if you don’t meet all our requirements; many of our employees learn on the job through training sessions and workshops. Who knows, maybe one day we’ll see you on YouTube in a podcast with Mišo Hucko.

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