Mike Milinkovich, Director of the Eclipse Foundation, Discusses the Journey to Jakarta EE 8

Transition to Jakarta EE

• In 2017, Red Hat, IBM, Tommy Tribe, and Oracle made a public announcement about their collaboration to transition Java Enterprise Edition Java EE 8 to an independent foundation. (19s)
• Oracle open-sourced the Java EE Technology Compatibility Kit (TCK), marking a significant milestone as it had never been open-sourced before. (2m52s)

Licensing and Trademark

• Due to complexities in trademark licensing agreements, the Eclipse Foundation will obtain a copyright license for the specifications, enabling them to continue the development and evolution of the Java EE specifications. (4m21s)
• Oracle considers the Java X namespace to be their trademark and wanted control over the evolution of the namespace, which the Eclipse Foundation could not agree to. (8m30s)

Jakarta EE 8

• Jakarta EE 8 will be functionally identical to Java EE 8, including the use of the Java X namespace. (10m2s)
• The difference between using Java EE 8 and Jakarta EE 8 is in the licensing. The Java EE license costs millions of dollars annually, while the Jakarta EE license only requires membership in the Jakarta EE working group. (10m46s)
• Jakarta EE 8 will be binary compatible with Java EE 8, using the same APIs and the javax namespace. (15m49s)
• Vendors are expected to adopt the Jakarta EE branding quickly. (16m5s)
• Jakarta EE 8 is planned for release before Oracle Code One, which occurs in the third week of September. (16m15s)

Specification Process

• The Eclipse Foundation has created a new specification process that is an overlay on top of their existing development process. (17m10s)
• The specification process is designed to be more formal than typical open source processes because it involves broader patent grants. (18m36s)

Future of Jakarta EE

• There is ongoing debate about whether Jakarta EE 9 should update all Java X namespaces to Jakarta at once ("Big Bang") or incrementally; a decision will be made by early to mid-June. (20m41s)
• Jakarta E8 will match Java E8 to allow users to switch licensing. (22m25s)
• Jakarta E9 will focus on namespace changes to ensure backwards compatibility with class loaders for both javax and Jakarta namespaces. (22m44s)
• MicroProfile will continue to release new specifications three times per year, independent of Jakarta EE. (23m10s)