Oracle: Java subscribers can renew under old terms

Existing Oracle Java SE licensees are not required to upgrade to the company’s controversial new Java subscription plan, which charges based on the number of employees rather than the number of actual Java users. Your current Java SE licenses and related support offerings will continue as usual.

While the new per-employee license, called Java SE Universal Subscription, is being offered to new customers, Oracle still has customers running the older Java SE licenses, which are based on the number of users or processors, Georges Saab, senior vice president of Oracle president of development said in an interview last week.

“For existing customers, it is up to them to choose,” Saab said. Clients can renew under the same terms and that has always been the case, he said. Java SE Universal Subscription replaced the legacy Java SE Subscription and Java SE Desktop Subscription plans effective January 23, 2023. “Customers of legacy Java SE Subscription products continue to receive all original benefits and may renew under their existing terms and metrics,” Oracle FAQ states.

After Oracle introduced the Universal plan, concerns were raised about the possibility of significantly higher license costs. Defending the plan, Saab said it arose when some customers wanted an easier way to determine license costs than counting the number of processors or designated users. “They wanted something that was easier for them to count,” Saab said.

While some Oracle customers have switched to the new employee-based metric, Oracle’s competitors claim to be benefiting from Oracle’s new license. The Eclipse Foundation, for example, said that downloads of its Temurin Java have increased. Oracle has offered subscriptions to the company’s Java distribution, with support and updates, for more than four years and has more than 10,000 customers.