Frustrating... I can't get java to work reliably on my linux. Almost every time it does a GC, it creates a zombie thread - and after a day or 2 it crashes ( after
filling the process table ). I usually restart the java process often - so I didn't noticed it - until I started using idea and jboss MX ( which allows you to replace libs without restarting the VM - a feature I'm trying to make work with tomcat).

I tried changing the libc and kernel - no effect. My current assumption is that it's related with glibc2.2.93 ( that ships with RedHat8 ). Gentoo glibc has the same problem ( 2.3.1 ). I'll try to downgrade my system to glibc2.2.5 or earlier - I run a lot of long-running tests on redhat7.2 and never had this problem.