Pivotal is offering a supported distribution of standard Java that also includes the Spring Framework and Apache Tomcat. Called the Pivotal Spring Runtime, the product is available by yearly subscription, with pricing based on Kubernetes Pods or compute core.

The Pivotal Spring Runtime package is being offered in response to Oracle’s new policies on Java Development Kit (JDK) distribution. Oracle has begun requiring a subscription for commercial Java support for mission-critical deployments, after previously offering a perpetual license and an annual support fee.

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The Apache Software Foundation has promoted its Java-based remote procedure call (RPC) framework, Apache Dubbo, from incubator to top-level project status. Dubbo includes interface-based remote call, fault tolerance, intelligent load balancing, and automatic service registration and discovery.

Google is doubling down on its support of the Kotlin language for Android mobile development, with the recommendation that all new Android projects be developed in Kotlin, the JVM-based alternative to Java. But while Android development will become “Kotlin-first,” Java and C++ will continue to be supported.

With Kotlin, there is less to type, less to test, and less to maintain, said Chet Haase, who leads the Android UI team at Google, at the Google I/O developer conference in Mountain View, CA. Unlike Java, Kotlin doesn’t require developers to write large amounts of “boilerplate” code. Haase even joked that developers’ typing skills might even be eroding because of this.

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The migration of Java EE (Enterprise Edition) to the Eclipse Foundation has hit some glitches, with Oracle not permitting Java specification trademarks to be used by the foundation. Nevertheless, Eclipse executive director Mike Milinkovich is adamant that Java EE is not dead and Oracle has not killed it, as one blog suggested.