JDK 21, which is revolutionary, futuristic and ushering in a new era, is finally officially GA today according to the official timetable: https://openjdk.org/projects/jdk/21/
GA is the abbreviation of "General Availability" I framed above. Literally translated into Chinese, although it means "generally available", in the software industry, it represents the official version. If a GA version is released to the outside world, it means that this version has been fully tested, does not have any major bugs, and can be used by ordinary users. Now that we are talking about GA, Master Wai would also like to share with you the meaning of the version numbers we generally see. For example, we often see some inexplicable words like Alpha, Beta, Gamma, RC, etc. when they are released. What do they mean?
Alpha: An internal testing version of a software or system for internal use only. It is generally not released to the outside world and usually has many bugs. Unless you are also a tester, it is not recommended to use it. Alpha is α, which is the first letter of the Greek letter, indicating the most basic version. Beta is β, and the alpha version is smaller than beta. The early beta versions are generally internal testing versions.
Beta: Public beta version. β is the second letter of the Greek letter. As the name suggests, this version is usually after the Alpha version. This version has been greatly improved compared to the Alpha version, and serious errors have been eliminated. However, there is still a flaw that needs to be resolved. Multiple tests to further