How to install Java 9 on Ubuntu

Some time ago we were talking about how to install Java 8 on Ubuntu, and now that Java 9 is in version early access, and within the community many users have wanted to know how to install it, we are going to tell you how you can have the new version of Java in Ubuntu quickly.

Before we continue, let us make one thing clear: Don't install Java 9 unless you specifically need it, since it is a version early access of a product that will see the light in 2016. To this day, it sure still has a few bugs and it is more than likely that it does not have the appropriate security patches, apart from the fact that removing some options in the JDK9 could lead to problems when using certain Java applications.

The PPA that we are going to offer you has been created by WebUpd8, and does not include any Oracle binary because the company does not allow it in its license. For this reason, the PPA includes a installer that automatically downloads Java 9 or what is the same, JDK9 and Java 9 in version Plugin for browsers, and that configures everything for you. The Java installer is considered an alpha version and is offered without any warranty, so using it is at your own risk and expense.

It is worth mentioning that the download will be somewhat slow due to Oracle servers, no matter how fast the connection through which you download it.

In any case, to install Java 9 on Ubuntu using PPA we use the following commands in a terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install oracle-java9-installer

The following will be set environment variables automatically. For this we use this command:

sudo apt-get install oracle-java9-set-default

Any older version of environment variables se will be removed the moment we install the new version.

And so far our little guide to install Java 9, we hope you find it useful and, once again, we recommend not using it if it is not strictly necessary given its nature as version early access.