The growing popularity of Java has been reinforced by a decision to standardize advanced-placement courses in U.S. high schools around Sun Microsystems' programming language.

Java 24 arrived today in a production release, packed with two dozen features. It’s a short-term support release eligible for six months of premier support.

This latest version of Java, due to arrive as a production release on September 16, has 18 features. JDK 25 comes on the heels of JDK 24, a six-month-support release that arrived March 18.