The Adoptium Marketplace: Access Standard Java Binaries from Leading Providers, Excluding Oracle
The Java landscape is set for a transformation with the Eclipse Foundation’s introduction of the Adoptium Marketplace. This new online platform aims to offer developers a diverse array of standard Java binaries from various providers, challenging Oracle’s dominant position in the market. The marketplace is a significant step towards increasing accessibility and choice for developers by providing Java SE Technology Compatibility Kit (TCK) certified and Eclipse AQAvit (Adoptium Quality Assurance) Java binaries.
The Adoptium Marketplace will feature Java binaries based on OpenJDK from several major organizations. Participants include Eclipse, with its Temurin runtime; Microsoft, offering the Microsoft Build of OpenJDK; IBM, with its Semeru Runtime Certified Edition; Huawei’s Bi Sheng; Alibaba Cloud’s Dragonwell; Red Hat’s build of OpenJDK; and Azul’s Zulu Builds of OpenJDK. The marketplace is expected to launch with contributions from these organizations, although some, like Alibaba Cloud and Microsoft, are anticipated to join in July.
Notably absent from the Adoptium Marketplace is Oracle, a key player in the Java ecosystem and a significant provider of Java distributions. Despite being a member of the Eclipse Foundation, Oracle has not yet participated in the new marketplace. Eclipse Executive Director Mike Milinkovich has extended an invitation to Oracle, but the company has yet to join. A recent New Relic study highlighted a shift in market dynamics, showing Oracle’s share declining from 75% in 2020 to approximately 34.48% this year.
The marketplace focuses on Java SE TCK certification and Eclipse AQAvit for performance and scalability testing. This dual-layer of certification aims to ensure that the binaries available are not only compliant with Java standards but also perform robustly in real-world applications. The inclusion of AQAvit testing adds an extra layer of quality assurance, making the marketplace a reliable source for high-quality Java binaries.
It’s worth noting that the Adoptium Marketplace will not include Eclipse’s Jakarta EE enterprise Java offerings. While Jakarta EE will run on the Java implementations provided through the marketplace, it will not be a part of the initial offerings. The marketplace’s primary focus is on providing core Java runtime environments and binaries.
The creation of the Adoptium Marketplace follows the original AdoptOpenJDK mission, which was established in 2017 to address the need for an open, community-based, and reproducible build and test system for OpenJDK across multiple platforms. This initiative reflects a broader trend towards democratizing access to Java technologies and fostering a more diverse ecosystem of Java runtime environments.