"eliminate"... They're really making full use of dropping the "don't be evil" clause aren't they.

Oops. Just imagine the karma I would have lost, were I still on Reddit...

Most people are still using Java 8 (including android)...

Surveys don't seem to back this up any more... Yes there's a lot of Java 8 code. But more and more of it is maintenance rather than new development. Respondents of surveys that are able to list the versions they use in production (vs 'pick one') have indicated that for many teams with exposure to Java 8, they also have newer versions in production - showing that Java 8 is increasingly about maintenance than ongoing development (with the blocks to moving forward being a mix economic and technical factors).

The most dominant frameworks in the industry are ending their support for Java 8 - so not too far down the track, staying on Java 8 will mean that while you can pay for platform support, framework support is going to disappear anyway.

...we are currently at ~java 20.

Yes Java 20 is the current release, with Oracle's LTS being Java 17 (the previous ones being 17, 11 and 8 - with 8 having the largest paid support window).

Java 21 is out in a couple of weeks and will become the new Oracle LTS (other vendors and frameworks tend to align on this LTS designation so it continues to be important).

The mere thought hadn't even begun to speculate about the merest possibility of crossing my mind...

(Credit to Douglas Adams for the quote... But I'm taking the credit for personally dodging the FB platform)

All large shops in England have been legally required to charge for single-use plastic shopping bags since 2015 - a move that has seen bags drop by mor then 95 per cent, according to the government. The legal charge was initially a minimum of 5p, but this was raised to 10p in May 2021 in a bid to further reduce usage.

Doesn't this approach risk promoting elitism by wealth? Past a given income level that fixed overhead becomes irrelevant.

So those on a lower income, who are more cost-sensitive, are made to be more responsible for reaching pollution-limiting targets than the wealthy.

I prefer the level-playing field better I think (if only we were applying that to more things here).

I poured way too much time into Rogue, Moria, Angband and Zangband back in the day... Sad to see Zangband completely disappeared - no idea if there's a similar flavour floating around.

Played a couple of newer more graphical (and probably better balanced games) but I actually found them less engaging.

My son was madly into Shattered Pixel Dungeon for a while.