History of Java
Last Updated: May 1, 2025
Java’s journey began in the early 1990s at Sun Microsystems, a company known for its innovative computing technologies. The development of Java was initiated by James Gosling, along with Mike Sheridan and Patrick Naughton, as part of a project called the Green Project.
Early Days: The Birth of Oak
In 1991, the team started working on a new language designed for consumer electronic devices like televisions and set-top boxes. They initially named this language Oak, after an oak tree that stood outside Gosling’s office. However, Oak was later renamed to Java, as the name Oak was already trademarked by another company.
Official Release
Java was officially launched in 1995 with the slogan:
“Write Once, Run Anywhere.”
This concept meant that Java programs could run on any device equipped with the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), regardless of the underlying hardware or operating system.
Key Milestones in Java’s Evolution
1995: Java 1.0 released by Sun Microsystems. It gained attention for applet support in web browsers.
1998: Java 2 (J2SE) introduced with major improvements, including the Swing GUI toolkit and Collections Framework.
2004: Java 5 (initially J2SE 1.5) introduced features like Generics, Enhanced for-loop, and Annotations.
2006: Sun released Java as open-source under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
2009: Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems and became the official steward of Java.
Java 8 (2014): Introduced Lambda Expressions, Stream API, and a new Date/Time API.
Java 11 (2018): First Long-Term Support (LTS) version after Java 8.
Java 17 (2021): Another LTS release, bringing more performance improvements and new language features.
Java 21 (2023): The latest LTS version with enhanced pattern matching, records, and virtual threads.
Why the Name Java?
The name Java was inspired by a type of coffee from the Indonesian island of Java. The developers wanted something unique, easy to spell, and related to technology. The name also reflected the energy and productivity they associated with coffee.