The second quarter of 2010 appears to be the goal for Java 7 (see http://openjdk.java.net/projects/jdk7/milestones/) although nothing is firm yet. Some are puzzled by this; is this Java SE 7, and will it be released without a JSR? That's possible; after all, JavaFX never had a JSR. Or, will it just be called something else, like JDK 7, or OpenJDK 7, and left at that?

I'm not sure either way, but what's important to know is that there is activity in the world of Java (or JDK) version 7, and the roadmap goes like this:

• During 2009, there have been 5 milestone releases, also called release candidates.
• Milestone 6 is due to be release in this final quarter of 2009. It should include updates to the concurrency APIS and collection classes, the XML stack, and cryptography.
• Milestone 7 is due in the first quarter of 2010, and its features are not firm and hence not listed. 
• The official release of JDK 7, or whatever it's called, is expected early in the second quarter of 2010.