12 is the current JDK version. OpenJDK has no notion of LTS (e.g. you will see no mention of 11 being an LTS on the project page: https://openjdk.java.net/projects/jdk/11/ nor any special designation compared to JDK 12's page), and all versions are equal.
Java's LTS means something that could perhaps be quite different from LTS in other projects. LTS is a service offered by companies to arbitrary JDK versions of their choice (e.g. Azul offers extended support for versions other than those Oracle does); there is nothing special about the development, testing, effort or focus put into those versions. In addition, people can choose to maintain OpenJDK update projects, as Red Hat does for 11. Anyway, JDK 12 is simply the current JDK version, and there is no reason to use an old version for a technical discussion -- there is nothing more stable about it, or any other technical difference -- even if companies offer extended support for it. (I work on OpenJDK at Oracle)
> But two of the main maintainers, Oracle and Red Hat, absolutely do.
BTW, Oracle contributes ~90% and Red Hat ~5%.
> It's technically accurate but substantially disingenuous to suggest that 11 is not Java's current LTS.
Either way that has little significance here. It is not the most popular version of Java in use today (that would be 8u2XX) nor is it any more production-ready or stable than 12. You can say that we're interested in results for the current version of Java or in the most popular one. I don't understand why it would be particularly interesting to discuss JDK 11, which is neither.
I'm really not sure where your confusion is coming from.
The post itself is interesting on two fronts: as a new emerging technology but also as a leverageable tool. As an OpenJDK developer I understand your interests are more about the former.
For many of us are using Oracle or RedHat LTS builds, we are running either 8 or 11 for "reasons". It's pretty natural to know if these new changes to the platform apply to a given version without asking.
Java's LTS means something that could perhaps be quite different from LTS in other projects. LTS is a service offered by companies to arbitrary JDK versions of their choice (e.g. Azul offers extended support for versions other than those Oracle does); there is nothing special about the development, testing, effort or focus put into those versions. In addition, people can choose to maintain OpenJDK update projects, as Red Hat does for 11. Anyway, JDK 12 is simply the current JDK version, and there is no reason to use an old version for a technical discussion -- there is nothing more stable about it, or any other technical difference -- even if companies offer extended support for it. (I work on OpenJDK at Oracle)