JEP 421 announces the end of Java Finalizers. Adios to an ancient Java feature, born together with Java 1.0 and its Garbage Collector. — “Finally” and “Finalize” We need those keywords only for specific cases, namely, releasing the operating system’s resources. In those cases, the Garbage Collector is insufficient; the program must release OS resources programmatically. Let’s provide a classic example of a “finally” block used to close an InputStream: