What's the difference between VisualVM and Java VisualVM?

Question

I've been having some trouble with "Java VisualVM", which seems Oracle branded, and the ugly about page claims I am running verison 1.6.0_51.

In particular one thing that tipped me off I've been running an out of date or somehow ill-maintained version of this very popular dev tool is that updating available plugins fails, with:

Unable to connect to the Java VisualVM Plugins Center because of java.security.cert.CertificateException: No subject alternative DNS name matching visualvm.dev.java.net found.

And indeed going to https://visualvm.dev.java.net gives scary warning.

So I go to http://visualvm.dev.java.net (no S) and download the "current" version, which is 1.3.6. This is now just called "Visual VM" and is licensed under GNU GPL, and is void of Oracle branding. It is also clearly nicer - the about page is better designed, it auto-updated some of its components when it opened, and going to available plugins is already populated and I can check for newest without error.

What are these two versions of this tool and how did I somehow wind up with the rotten one?

Answer 1

A version of VisualVM ships with the JDK distribution. But since VisualVM is on its own release cycle, the version that ships with the JDK is likely to be obsolete by the time you get it.