Yes JDK8 is supported till 2030 but it looks like undefined in the table below. I don't consider this as a healthy argument that we should be on Java 8 as well especially if it is the year 2030 because then we are affected by this decision for years. The Maven 4 goes with Java 17 - I am glad. See this table: https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/java-se-support-roadmap.html
If somebody understands this problem and especially the Surefire project then he must realize that we are talking only about *Forked-JVM problem*. a not the *In-Process* (means in-maven JVM execution). That's a big difference because then we can split the decision in two: *1. Maven plugin itself on Java 8 including the In-Process Provider, and* *2. Forked-JVM on Java 9. This is not in contrast with the decision that all Maven 3.x and plugins are on Java 8.* Additionally, in practice you have the projects compiled by Java 8 compiler but the runtime is at higher version and the reason is JVM performance. If this is still not such case in some projects, then we should keep the code as it is because it has polymorphism and the implementation was designed to be extensible. This means that we can stick to the *WMIC* command and switch to *ProcessHandle.isAlive() *if Java 9+ presents or if the *WMIC* is not found, and this is I think a good compromise for everyone. WDYT? You know, I don't like if somebody is proactively coding something but he has no notion about the situation. This would lead to big stability issues and we already have in new Maven version development problem which has a common denominator and it is the organization problem, how we are organized together. Therefore I was offline for some time and it was difficult for me to join the team, and now it is too much, and now it is time to clarify the things and make some order because we have to work together somehow with some Timing Agreement and Plan... Cheers Tibor On Sat, Feb 7, 2026 at 4:07 AM Greg Chabala <[email protected]> wrote: > I don't relish having to say this, but JDK8 is still a supported platform > by Oracle and others, and Surefire/Failsafe are very core plugins to Maven > builds. > > Breaking JDK8 compatibility for future versions of the plugin 'because > windows' seems premature. >
