JavaFX, Oracle’s 10-year-old rich client development technology for Java, will be decoupled from the Java Development Kit (JDK) and broken out into its own separate module.

Making JavaFX its own module will make it easier to adopt and clear the way for new contributors, Oracle said. The company added that with the faster release schedule being implemented for standard Java and the JDK, JavaFX needs to be on its own pace driven by contributions from Oracle and others in the OpenJFX community.

JavaFX will be removed from the Java JDK as of JDK 11, which is due in September 2018. It is bundled in the current JDK 9 and will remain in JDK 10, due this spring. Commercial support for JavaFX in JDK 8 will continue through at least 2022. Featuring a set of packages for graphics and media, JavaFX has been part of the JDK download since 2012.

JavaFX was introduced in May 2007 by Java founder Sun Microsystems in an attempt to bring Java to the forefront of rich client development for desktops and mobile devices, competing with Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight. Oracle took control when it acquired Sun in 2010. The technology, which was open-sourced in 2011, has maintained a following but never really took the industry by storm. Like Silverlight and Flash Player, JavaFX receded to the background as developers looked to more standards-based technologies, particularly HTML5, to deliver rich internet applications.