JDK 26 Second Release Candidate Published Ahead of March General Availability
The second and likely final release candidate for Java 26 has been published, keeping the feature set frozen as the project targets March 17, 2026 for general availability.
The OpenJDK project published the second release candidate for JDK 26 on February 19, 2026, marking what is expected to be the last milestone before the March 17 general availability release. The feature set was frozen in December 2025, and RC2 is open only for critical bug fixes.
What's New in Java 26
JDK 26 consolidates several features that have been through multiple preview cycles. Primitive types in pattern matching reach their fourth preview in this release, allowing instanceof and switch to work across all primitive types, not just reference types. This addresses a long-standing asymmetry in the language.
The release also includes notable runtime improvements. The G1 garbage collector now eagerly reclaims humongous objects that contain references without requiring a full heap liveness analysis, reducing GC pause times in workloads that allocate many large objects. Virtual threads benefit from a change that unmounts a waiting thread from its carrier rather than pinning it when it waits for class initialization — a situation that previously caused thread starvation under heavy load.
HTTP Server and Other API Changes
The HttpExchange attribute map is no longer shared with the enclosing HttpContext by default. Each exchange now has its own independent attribute map, correcting a design inconsistency that could cause unexpected state leakage between concurrent HTTP requests handled by the same context.
Support Lifecycle
JDK 26 is a short-term feature release, backed by six months of Premier-level support. Organizations that need longer support windows should target JDK 25 LTS, which provides years of extended maintenance. JDK 26 GA is scheduled for March 17, 2026, with early-access binaries available under the GPL at jdk.java.net/26. The inside.java newsletter also noted that JavaOne 2026 registrations are open alongside the RC announcement.
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