That's the Oracle pitch. The practical implication is that you don't get your openjdk builds from them if you want to avoid the audits, licensing, etc. Paid support is also offered by others so they don't do this exclusively. This has been true since they acquired Sun. I find this odd because that was arguably the most valuable thing they acquired from them.
BTW, v9 was a non LTS release, just like 10. v8 was the last traditional release. V11 is a relatively short lived LTS release. Hence Amazon and others stepping up to fill the void left by Oracle no longer offering long term support for free.
Well, like the vast majority of OpenJDK developers, I work at Oracle :) (but I speak only for myself)
> The practical implication is that you don't get your openjdk builds from them if you want to avoid the audits, licensing, etc.
The OpenJDK builds from Oracle (http://jdk.java.net/) -- the "official" OpenJDK builds for the current JDK version -- are under the same license as any other OpenJDK distribution, and the download page for Oracle customers clearly says download our OpenJDK builds if you're not a support customer.
> the void left by Oracle no longer offering long term support for free.
The "no longer" here is misleading. There are two completely new upgrade models now. Oracle offers one of them (the recommended gradual path) completely free, and the other (the non-gradual path) as a subscription. Neither of those is the same as before. For example, JDK 11 is a feature release marked LTS. It is about the same size as 7u4 or 8u20. Oracle never offered LTS for 8u20 or 7u4; it was always only 6 months. In the past we had major releases that were supported with "limited update" releases and patch releases. Those major releases no longer exist, so it doesn't make sense to say that Oracle no longer offers something which is now irrelevant. On the other hand, the LTS releases now include only patches, whereas the feature releases are like "limited update +".
So Oracle no longer offers free LTS (in the form of limited update releases and patches) for major releases, and no one else does, either, because major releases no longer exist.
BTW, v9 was a non LTS release, just like 10. v8 was the last traditional release. V11 is a relatively short lived LTS release. Hence Amazon and others stepping up to fill the void left by Oracle no longer offering long term support for free.