Add option to track LTS versions

[alculete]

It would be great to have the option to add LTS versions for example track openjdk21

[jgneff]

I actually have that available! It's unlisted in the Snap Store, meaning that it does not appear in search results, because I use it for my own purposes and don't want people depending on it. But, for now at least, the latest JDK 18, 19, 20, and 21 are available as the BootJDK Snap package on the following channels:

$ snap info bootjdk
name:      bootjdk
summary:   Boot JDK for building OpenJDK Snap package
  ...
channels:
  latest/stable:    18.0.2.1+1 2024-03-23 (199) 239MB -
  latest/candidate: 19.0.2+7   2024-03-23 (205) 246MB -
  latest/beta:      20.0.2+9   2024-03-23 (211) 247MB -
  latest/edge:      21.0.6+6   2024-12-04 (368) 252MB -

Caution

I may change the versions on those channels at any time as needed for building the OpenJDK Snap package.

I created the OpenJDK Snap package so that I could have the current JDK release on Ubuntu and build it using the same Launchpad Build Farm that builds all the other packages in Ubuntu. There's really no reason anymore to stay back on an LTS version. Furthermore, if you're getting an LTS version for free, it's not really fully supported the way that it is with a paid LTS subscription. For details, see this comment (among many others) by Ron Pressler, an OpenJDK developer, on Hacker News. Go to the bottom of that page and search for the terms pron jdk free lts for many more comments by Ron about the what you're really getting with a free LTS release.

In any case, I think Ubuntu has been doing a pretty good job of keeping up to date with the latest "LTS" version with its normal Debian package, currently at 21.0.5+11 with openjdk-21-jdk on Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS.