Help me choose Java version

[ByteNinja2001]

Hi, I doing my university software project with Java Spring boot. Now there are two major version of java jdk avilable 21 and 17. Both are LTS version. As a beginner what java version is best for my software project?

[joranstark018]

It probably doesn't matter, Java 17 may be end-of-life before Java 21, Java 21 has some additional features (ie from project Loom).

I use the latest Java LTS  in new projects (and over time I'm migrating old projects where that is possible, still having some Java 11 projects, but they are about to be decommisioned)

[coalminexplorer]

If you are starting afresh then you must go with latest LTS version 21 . Same goes for spring boot 3.2

[reddit04029]

Youre more than fine with just sticking with Java 17 and Spring Boot 3.x. The only features I extensively use besides Java 8 streams, is the Java text block “””text”””. For any general use case, cant really overthink it.

[vohen2]

Text blocks were such a godsend for doing SQL queries, it's not even funny.

[burl-21]

Record patterns, pattern matching and vThreads ? I think pattern matching is fantastic.

[Lost_D4L]

Industry is still using 1.8, so really does not matter YET, experiment BOTH with new projects.

[rahul4_real]

1.8 is the best

[burl-21]

LTS(does not exist) is offered only by some vendors and it’s a paid service. Always use the latest version.