Sun has slipped the schedule on Java 6. The first release candidate is now due at the end of October and the final release tentativiely in the first week of December. I doubt this matters all that much. Java 1.4 was probably the last version I really wanted the latest and greatest as soon as possible. Of course, the only thing I've ever really needed the latest and greatest for was to write books about it, and betas work just fine for that. The increased access to Java 6 build code has been a big help. The second edition of Java I/O includes a lot of Java 6 material even though it was published several months ago, for example.