Oracle follows a fixed schedule of Java Critical Patch Update (CPU). With each new patch release, the old version is invalidated and the users have to install the new update. Otherwise, Java will cease to work on the system. This works even if you are offline as Oracle has a secondary mechanism built into JRE that expires the runtime environment if it is not able to reach Oracle servers online. If you have installed Java 8 Update 231, you should update to the latest Java 8 Update 241. We will discuss the update options later in the post. Java 8 Update 241 will expire on 14th May 2020 when the new update, most probably, Java 8 Update 251 is released.
What’s new in Java 8 Update 241
Oracle has released its Critical Patch Update for January 2020 fixing 334 vulnerabilities across its multiple products and platforms. Some of the fixes are critical as some of these vulnerabilities could be exploited by remote attackers effectively taking control of the affected system. So if you have Java installed on your system, you should probably update it to the latest update 241 immediately. JDK 1.8_241 comes with some new features in addition to security fixes. Here is the list of new features: If you want to go through the complete list of updates and their details, you can visit the Java 8 Update 241 release notes page.
How do I update my Java Runtime Environment to version 8 Update 241?
First, you should know which version of Java you’re running on your computer. To check this, you can use java -version command. Once you are sure that you don’t have the latest version of Java installed, you can use the control panel applet to update Java: You can also manually download Java 8 Update 241. Manual downloads are good for users who do not have Java installed on your systems or they want to download the Java 8 Update 241 offline installer for later use. It is available for the following platforms:
Windows (32-bit and 64-bit)Linux (32-bit and 64-bit)Mac OS (64-bit)Solaris and Solaris SPARC (64-bit)
The page lists offline and web installers. Is Java 1.8 the same as Java 8? 1.8 is the version of the Java Development Kit (JDK) also known as Software Development Kit or SDK. Java 8 is the actual version and the runtime environment has the same version as Java. How can I update my JDK to 1.8.0_241? If you have JDK 1.8 installed, you can download and update the development kit to the latest Update 241. Downloading and installing the latest JDK will also update the runtime environment. There is no need to separately download the JRE again. Installing JDK is enough for updating both JDK and JRE.
Final Thoughts
Java 8 is becoming obsolete. Commercial users of Java 8 have to pay Oracle for a commercial license to get updates. But if you are using Java 8 for personal purposes, you can get these updates for free. The free updates will be available until the end of 2020. After that Java 8 will reach its end of life. You should try out new versions of Java like Java 11 and Java 13.
