Conceptual Java Evolution: From 8 to 25
Part 8: Java 18, 19 & 20: Virtual Threads on the Horizon
Java 18, 19, and 20 were bridge releases between the Java 17 and Java 21 LTS versions. They introduced UTF-8 as the default charset, a simple built-in web server, and — most significantly — previewed virtual threads, structured concurrency, and record patterns that would be finalised in Java 21.