Mark Reinhold

That's why it's called a modular jar. There is also this "jmod" file described as:

"For the purpose of modularizing the Java SE Platform’s reference implementation, the JDK, we will introduce a new artifact format that goes beyond JAR files to accommodate native code, configuration files, and other kinds of data that do not fit naturally, if at all, into JAR files. This format leverages another advantage of expressing module declarations in source files and compiling them into class files, namely that class files are independent of any particular artifact format. Whether this new format, provisionally named “JMOD,” should be standardized is an open question."

Edit: from http://mreinhold.org/blog/jigsaw-modular-images

"The internal files rt.jar, tools.jar, and dt.jar have been removed. The content of these files is now stored in a more efficient format in implementation-private files in the lib directory."

LTS was proposed by Mark Reinhold [1] who leads the JDK Project in the OpenJDK community in 2017. There was a lot of discussion [2] that resulted in many vendors supporting and adopting the LTS model.

It's a thriving ecosystem (which is great!) but yes, Oracle does contribute a significant portion [3].

[1] https://mreinhold.org/blog/forward-faster
[2] https://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/discuss/2017-September/subject.html
[3] https://inside.java/2022/03/22/the-arrival-of-java18/

Some other news in relation to the release:

- (Proposal) Moving JDK LTS versions to a two year cadence [1]. Java 21 will be next LTS instead of Java 23.

- Oracle JDK is now free for commercial and production use [2].

- A new Java developer site [3].

[1] https://mreinhold.org/blog/forward-even-faster

[2] https://blogs.oracle.com/java/post/free-java-license

[3] https://dev.java/