JDK 26 Ships 10 JEPs With HTTP/3 and Structured Concurrency

2 articles · Updated · InfoWorld · May 12

March 17’s JDK 26 release delivered 10 JDK Enhancement Proposals, a lighter-than-average feature set for a non-LTS version and the first Java release with no preview features made final.
HTTP/3 support in the HTTP Client API and Structured Concurrency headline the update, adding QUIC-based networking and a simpler way to manage related multithreaded tasks with better error handling and cancellation.
Library changes also add PEM encoding APIs, Lazy Constants, an 11th incubating Vector API update, and remove the long-deprecated Applet API left over after browser support disappeared.
Runtime work prepares future limits on changing final fields via deep reflection, extends ahead-of-time object caching to any garbage collector, and boosts default G1 GC throughput by cutting synchronization.
After 17 Java versions under the six-month cadence, JDK 26 is positioned as production-ready for fast-deployment teams, while developers are urged to test now before JDK 29—the next LTS release—arrives next year.

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