What is a vendor when talking about java?

Question

What is it exactly? The most information I could find this code (from http://sanjaal.com/java/tag/find-java-vendor/)

public class GetJavaVersionAndVendor {

    public static void main(String args [])
    {
        String version=System.getProperty("java.version");
        String vendor=System.getProperty("java.vendor");

        System.out.println("Java Version Is: "+version);
        System.out.println("Java Vendor Is: "+vendor);
    }

}

This code gave me the name "Oracle Corporation" which I guess is the developer of the Java version I currently have installed.

I also found out that the properties for listed as "Sun Microsystems Inc" have been rebranded to "Oracle Corporation". Thus, I make the assumption that this "vendor" has a property file. Is that correct?

Answer 1

Vendor is just the creator/maintainer of the JVM. Sun was bought by Oracle a couple of years ago so the "Sun JVM" more or less got relabeled as the "Oracle JVM". There are a lot of different JVM implementations. Each one has to follow the JVM Spec. Take a look at the full List of JVMs

Answer 2

Vendor means implementer of JVM, is JVM/JRE by Oracle (or) IBM (or) Some other. Each of these have their own implementation of JVM.

Example:

java.vendor = Sun Microsystems Inc. 
java.vendor.url = http://java.sun.com/