Oracle has announced the schedule for Java 9 with a target release date of September 22, 2016. The question is, will there be significant slippages this time?

In a post to the OpenJDK mailing list on May 5th , Mark Reinhold, chief architect for the Java platform group at Oracle, proposed the following timetable for Java 9's development milestones:

• 10 December 2015: Feature Complete
• 04 February 2016: All Tests Run
• 25 February 2016: Rampdown Start
• 21 April 2016: Zero Bug Bounce
• 16 June 2016: Rampdown Phase 2
• 21 July 2016: Final Release Candidate
• 22 September 2016: General Availability

Commenting that the milestone definitions are the same as those for JDK 8, which was subject to delay, Reinhold stated:

The dates here are meant to leave sufficient time for broad review and testing of the significant features of the release, in particular the introduction of a module system and the modularization of the platform, while maintaining the cadence of shipping a major release about every two years.

The community had a week in which to raise any objections to the scheme and as none were received the schedule has been posted on the JDK 9 Project Schedule and Features page where you can also find details of the features being targeted for the release.

Early adopters have been able to try out Java 9 since October 2014, see JDK 9 Early Access Now Available and currently have access to build b63. There is also a build (b40) that lets devs try out Project Jigsaw, the modularized system for the Java SE platform.  originally intended to be included in Java 8, without them needing to build it from sources. 

Other features to be included in Java 9 are:

• a common logging system for all JVM components (JEP 158)
  
  
• refinements to improve the efficiency of garbage collection (JEP 214)
  
  
• amendments to the Project Coin language (JEP 213)

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