Java 21 / JDK 21 Reaches GA With Virtual Threads, Generational ZGC

Java 21 and the JDK 21 release under a general availability (GA) status occurred a short time ago as the newest major update to the Java programming language.

Java 21 introduces the notion of sequenced collections, the Z Garbage Collector (ZGC) has been extended to maintain separate generations for young and old objects for improving Java app performance, virtual threads are now out of preview form, and the Windows 32-bit x86 port has been deprecated for removal.

Java 21 also brings some new preview features including string templates, the latest iteration on the foreign function and memory API, unnamed classes and instance main methods, scoped values, and structured concurrency.

Making JDK 21 / Java 21 all the more significant is that it's the newest Long-Term Support (LTS) release following JDK 17.

More details on today's Java 21 (JDK 21) GA release via the JDK-dev mailing list. More details on all of the major improvements with Java 21 can be found via OpenJDK.org.