Java 6 Update 14

Java 6 update 14 has apparently been released.

This is a very substantial patch, with a lot of fixes and changes.

Among the things that interested me in this list:

• 6u14 contains the 10.4.2.1 version of Java DB. Note that this version number is very similar, but not identical, to a version number you might see on an Apache Derby release. But, there is no 10.4.2.1 release of Apache Derby. This was the subject of a long and complex discussion in the Derby community back in February. The simple summary is that 10.4.2.1 is a JavaDB release which contains some additional fixes beyond the 10.4.2.0 release available from the Apache web site, and the modifies 4th digit in the release number helps us track that.
• 6u14 contains a substantially-updated version of the VisualVM tool for Java monitoring and profiling.
• 6u14 contains a number of new HotSpot changes, most significantly a version of the much-anticipated G1 garbage collector.

Although I'm constrained by circumstances to do much of my work with JDK 1.4, I try to use JDK 1.6 whenever possible in my development environment, because it has so many fixes and improvements.

I'll try to get this update soon.