Granted, Oracle does contribute lots of code. As the result, lots of Oracle-created code gets backported too. That said, I see people backport a lot of code/tests that they wrote themselves, and/or with the help of non-Oracle contributors. For example, Red Hat, SAP, Huawei backport a lot of code to maintain the target platforms they own (e.g. AArch64 and PPC), or their components (e.g. diagnostics support, Shenandoah), or their build environments. While I understand the desire to pitch Oracle here, it would be awkward to do so by undervaluing the contributions of others at the same time.

I am not undervaluing anyone's contribution. Many companies contribute a lot of valuable work, and we at Oracle are thrilled to cooperate with them and actively encourage them to contribute more, but Oracle does currently contribute ~90% of the work on OpenJDK. So many companies and independent developers deserve full credit, but Oracle is in a separate category, contributing as much as all others combined, several times over. This explains why Oracle has opted to offer only paid support for those opting to stay on old JDK versions: this is how Oracle funds lion's share of OpenJDK's development.

BTW, the recommended path is free perpetual support by using the current JDK version that, under the new gradual release model, means you'll never have to do another major upgrade again. Staying on old JDK versions will be more expensive, even if you're using a free distribution.

Oracle is in a separate category, no question there.

It was my mistake to mention other vendors in the thread that is about AdoptOpenJDK. I just wanted to show where the AdoptOpenJDK sits in the larger OpenJDK ecosystem: they are important builders and distributors.

> the recommended path is free perpetual support by using the current JDK version that, under the new gradual release model, means you'll never have to do another major upgrade again.

Implying applications always receive continued development...

This has always been true, and also true for those that stick to LTS. If you want to receive security patches, you need to update your JDK. BTW, as the new deployment approach is to create a custom minimal runtime and bundle it with your app, your application may not need security patches, depending on what it does.