That Java 9 feature would definitely be amazing. I agree, Swift is nowhere near ...

pjmlp · on Oct 26, 2016

The linker part is described in these JavaONE 2016 talks

Cyph0n · on Oct 26, 2016

Thanks for that. Are you aware of any numbers on the size savings you get for a typical app using jlink?

pjmlp · on Oct 27, 2016

No, as I am yet to play with it.

So far I only seen the presentations.

But looking at Java 8 on this PC I would say:

jvm.dll (8 MB) + main.exe (200 KB) + trimmed down JRE

Also notice that from the presentations they have some experimental support for jlink plugins, which can further shrink down the size.