Oracle released Java 26 in March, and honestly, it's one of those releases that fly under the radar because it's not LTS — but there's good stuff in there. Ten JEPs total, five already finalized, and the one that caught my attention the most was the AOT cache one (JEP 516), which now works with any garbage collector, including ZGC. Before that it was limited to Serial, Parallel, and G1, so anyone running a low-latency GC finally gets that benefit without workarounds. Besides that, there are four more JEPs in preview and one incubator, which already gives room to guess what might become standard a version or two from now. Nothing as revolutionary as virtual threads were back in the day, but you can see Oracle keeps pushing Java forward at a pretty steady pace — every six months, without fail, which is honestly impressive for a language this old. The question that remains is whether it's worth moving to 26 or better to wait for the LTS coming next September. If you just want stability in production, stick with 25. But if you like testing new stuff before everyone else, you can already play around with the new AOT cache without worry. Oh, and Oracle used the launch to announce the so-called Java Verified Portfolio, bringing back commercial support for JavaFX and also for Helidon. Seems like the idea is to consolidate a more "official" ecosystem around Java — could be good, or it could just be another way to sell paid support. Everyone can draw their own conclusion. So, do you still care about non-LTS releases, or do you just wait for the next LTS?