C# had a major break with the move from .NET Framework to .NET Core. This was a major issue frequently talked about, and is still an issue today. Java was very stable in contrast.

Every language platform and project auto-expires. It isn't Java specific. No primary maintainers want to support older versions forever, they just want to support the latest version.

Moving away from Java would be an even worse option than upgrading to a newer Java. All the other options are even less stable or backwards compatible than Java.

What are those inescapable costs of going from 8 to 11?

The Java language and standard library has great backwards-compatibility, while it adds useful features and enhancements version by version. It really is not that difficult to just jump to the latest Java version no matter what your current version is. There's no reason to spend a lot of effort doing small version jumps at a time. One could say jump from Java 8 to Java 25 in about the same amount of effort as going from 8 to 11, especially when they have a window of several years to do it in, and most existing Java 8 code would continue to work unchanged in Java 25.

You don't even need a private browsing window. The sign-up button gives the same message in a non-private window.

The high Seattle rents are not caused by the $15 Now, rather they are caused by all the tech companies bringing large numbers of highly-paid people into the area, driving up demand for limited housing.

LinkedIn does *not* demand email accounts or address books. They may give you the option to import such, but you can easily say 'no' and use LinkedIn without such. I did that with my account.

I went to that web site, read the literature, and listened to the recording. In my opinion, Marc Perkel hasn't shown that anything that PayPal did was unreasonable or wrong, but simply that he didn't like it. I happened to write him a reply to his blog too:

Any legitimate issues raised by others aside ... Marc, I listened to your recording in its entirety plus your other written info and I can't find anything wrong with Paypal's policy as revealed on your website. The only outstanding issue that you are raising is that they are holding your money for 180 days, to fully cover any possible charge-backs by your customers. After that time, you will get it back. Its not like they are keeping it forever. PayPal is doing what any decent merchant would do, which is protecting the customers. And yes, they are a merchant, like yourself, and not a bank or a credit card. I empathize with you for the wait you will have to endure, but I don't see that you have proven any wrong-doing on their part.

Despite advocating free speech otherwise, it seems that the guy didn't like what I said and deleted my reply from the forum. That's his right, but so much for logical arguments.