Java Version Comparison - Java 1 to Java 8

Java SE 8 Expected Release on September 09, 2013
This version is only available as a development version only.
Whats New: (Note: This may very with the release)
-Improvement in java.lang package
-Annotations on Java Types
-DocTree API
-Parallel Array Sorting
-Bulk Data Operations for Collections
-Collections Enhancements from Third-Party Libraries
-Base64 Encoding and Decoding
-New HTTP Client
-More Security enhancements




Java SE 7 Released on July 28, 2011
Code Name used "Dolphin"
Whats New:
-Strings in switch
-Automatic resource management in try-statement (try statement without catch block)
-Catching multiple exception types (multiple catch blocks)
-Exceptions rethrowing with improved type checking
-JVM support for dynamic languages
-Compressed 64-bit pointers
-Improved type inference for generic instance creation
-Simplified varargs method declaration
-Binary integer literals
-Allowing underscores in numeric literals
-New file I/O library to enhance platform independence and add support for metadata and symbolic links
-Library-level support for Elliptic curve cryptography algorithms
-An XRender pipeline for Java 2D, which improves handling of features specific to modern GPUs
-Enhanced library-level support for new network protocols, including SCTP and Sockets Direct Protocol
-Upstream updates to XML and Unicode




Java SE 6 Released on December 11, 2006
Code Name used "Mustang"
Sun replaced the name "J2SE" with Java SE and dropped the ".0" from the version number.
Whats New:
-Generic API for tight integration with scripting languages, and built-in Mozilla JavaScript Rhino integration
-Dramatic performance improvements for the core platform and Swing.
-Improved Web Service support through JAX-WS
-Java Compiler API
-Support for pluggable annotations
-Java Kernel
-New skinnable look and feel, called Nimbus for Swing.




J2SE 5.0 Released on September 30, 2004
Code Name used "Tiger"
This is also a very significant release of Java as it introduced many number of new features.
Whats New:
-Generics
-Metadata / Annotations
-Autoboxing/unboxing
-Enumerations
-Varargs
-Enhanced for each loop - (for (Example e: examples))
-Static imports
-Automatic stub generation support for RMI objects.
-New skinnable look and feel, called synth for Swing.
-The concurrency utilities  in package java.util.concurrent
-Scanner class for parsing data from various input streams and buffers.




J2SE 1.4 Released on February 6, 2002
Cod Name used "Merlin"
Whats New:
-assert keyword
-regular expressions (modeled after Perl regular expressions)
-exception chaining (allows an exception to encapsulate original lower-level exception)
-Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) support
-logging API 
-image I/O API for reading and writing images in formats like JPEG and PNG
-integrated XML parser and XSLT processor (JAXP)
-integrated security and cryptography extensions (JCE, JSSE, JAAS)
-Java Web Start included 
-Preferences API




J2SE 1.3 Released on May 8, 2000
Code Name used "Kestrel"
Whats New:
-Modified RMI to support optional compatibility with CORBA
-JavaSound
-Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI) included in core libraries (previously available as an extension)
-Java Platform Debugger Architecture (JPDA)
-Synthetic proxy classes




J2SE 1.2 Released on December 8, 1998
Code Name used "Playground"
This was a very significant release of Java as it tripled the size of the Java platform.
This was so called Java 2 as and replaced the name JDK in order to represent three major platforms J2SE(Standard Edition), J2EE(Enterprise Edition), J2ME(Micro Edition).
Whats New:
-strictfp keyword
-Intergrated Swing graphical API
-Sun's JVM was equipped with a JIT compiler
-Java plug-in
-Java IDL, an IDL implementation for CORBA interoperability
-Collections framework




JDK 1.1 Released on  February 19, 1997
With major retooling of the AWT event model
Whats New:
-Inner classes 
-JavaBeans
-JDBC
-RMI
-reflection at Introspection only



JDK 1.0  Released on January 23, 1996
Code Name used "Oak". With first stable version JDK 1.0.2. it is called Java