diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index cd8d4ca3..ede25fe5 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -1,17 +1,16 @@
 # Travis CI configuration
 
-# trusty (has build-essential) + Java
-dist: trusty
+# xenial (has build-essential) + Java
+dist: xenial
 # we are requiring VM instead of Docker builds due to sporadic nailgun test suite failures
 sudo: required
 language: java
 
-# we test for JDK 8,9,10,11
+# we test for JDK 8,10,11
 jdk:
-  - oraclejdk8
-  - oraclejdk9
+  - openjdk8
   - openjdk10
-#  - openjdk11
+  - openjdk11
   
 # compile and run the test suite
 # we manually set PRISM_JAVA to the java on the PATH as the python invocation of prism-auto fiddles with the PATH variable...