by Melinda Paterson
This article applies to Oracle Solaris releases 10 3/05 through 01/13. The information in this document applies to any platform.
Overview
Oracle Solaris 10 1/13 ships with Java SE 6 update 37 (and, for compatibility reasons, it also contains the Java 4 and Java 5 versions) for use with components of Oracle Solaris 10 that have a dependency on Java. Java SE 6 will enter Sustaining Support on January 1, 2018, at which time no further fixes or updates will be released. Oracle Solaris 10 will enter Extended Support on February 1, 2018, at which time an Extended Support uplift to Oracle Premier Support will be required to obtain any Oracle Solaris 10 patches created between February 1, 2018 and January 31, 2021.
Customers are encouraged to move to Oracle Solaris 11, but while they are still on Oracle Solaris 10, they are urged to download the latest Java SE 7 release for the latest features, security enhancements, and performance enhancements. The feature enhancements are detailed in the release notes for each Java SE 7 update. Oracle Premier Support is available for the Java SE platform. Customers who are not on a support plan and who have not moved to Java SE 7, are encouraged to review the Java SE Support Roadmap for additional information on support for older Java SE releases.
Note: The dates mentioned in this article are accurate at the time of the writing of this article; however, if the dates in the Oracle Lifetime Support Policy or the Java SE Support Roadmap change in the future, the changed dates will take precedence.
Details
As noted in "Support Entitlement for Java SE When Used As Part of Another Oracle Product" (Doc ID 1557737.1), Oracle customers who have current support entitlements to any other Oracle product that requires the JRE or JDK, but who do not also have Oracle Java SE Support, have a constrained set of rights to use Java SE products and services.
Customers who have Oracle products and use the JRE or JDK are entitled, without the need to separately purchase Oracle Java SE Support, to do the following:
- Download and use Java SE updates, patches, and tools for use with the licensed Oracle product. Customers are entitled to download only the Java SE versions that are required by their Oracle product.
- Install and use Java SE updates, patches, and tools to develop or deploy their Oracle product.
- File service requests for Java issues against their Oracle product, but not directly against Java SE.
In most cases, this means that Oracle customers are expected to download and install Java SE updates and patches only on those servers licensed to use an Oracle product, and to configure the downloaded Java SE version to be used only with the Oracle product. Some Oracle products are licensed as server products, but also contain client applications or client-side libraries. For such Oracle products, Java SE updates and patches can be installed on the client side and used to run only client applications provided by Oracle, or they can be installed on custom client applications that are built using client libraries provided as part of the Oracle product and are accessed through a product-specific protocol.
As noted in the Oracle Lifetime Support Policy and on the Java SE Support Roadmap, the end of Premier Support for Java SE 6 was extended to December 2015, and the end of Extended Support was extended to December 2018. The extension of Support Life for Java SE 6 does not include the Java SE 6 Deployment Technology. Java SE 6 Deployment Technology will be available only until June 2017. Update releases of Java SE 6 released after June 2017 will not include deployment technology.
As noted in the Oracle Lifetime Support Policy, the Oracle Solaris 10 end of Premier Support is January 2018, and the end of Extended Support is January 2021.
Oracle will not release security patches or other patches for Java SE 6 after December 2018; therefore, Oracle strongly recommends Oracle Solaris 10 customers using the bundled Java SE 6 (or earlier version) either upgrade to a later version of Java SE or remove and discontinue use of the Oracle Solaris 10 component(s) dependent on Java SE 6.
Oracle Solaris 10 customers can file service requests for Java issues specific to the Oracle Solaris component dependent on Java SE 6 until January 2021 and—at Oracle's discretion—the dependent component may be updated to function with Java SE 7, or the component and its functionality within Oracle Solaris 10 may be removed.
Two examples of Oracle Solaris 10 components dependent on Java are
- SUNWdhcm—Graphical management interface for the DHCP server
- SUNWppm—Graphical tool for managing printers under Oracle Solaris
About the Author
Melinda Paterson is a senior program manager for the Service Design and Readiness group at Oracle.
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