JDK Differences

Java JDK Major Releases and Released Differences
Date	Version	Codename	New Features Introduced In that Release
1996-01-23	1.0	Oak?	Java released to public
1997-02-18	1.1	Sparkler	No longer supported. Added a totally new event model, using Listeners, anonymous classes and inner classes. This is the level Microsoft has trapped many of its customers at. Netscape proprietary RSA code signing. Microsoft proprietary CAB code signing.
1998-12-04	1.2	Playground	No longer supported. Added ArrayList and other Collections, added Swing (though the initial release is missing many methods). Added DSA code signing. Added BufferedImage
2000-05-08	1.3	Kestrel	No longer supported. java.util.Timer, java.lang. StrictMath, Runtime. addShutdownHook, java.awt. Robot, java.awt.print. PageAttributes, java.media.sound (MIDI and sampled). Hotspot introduced. RMI now has the option of using CORBA’s IIOP protocol. Added RSA code signing, which quickly effectively obsoleted DSA certificates.
2002-02-13	1.4	Merlin	No longer supported. added regexes, assertions and nio.
2004-09-29	1.5	Tiger	added StringBuilder, java.util.concurrent, generics, enums, annotations, autoboxing, covariant return types, for:each, static import and variable-length argument lists. MacOS for the PowerPC is stuck at version 1.5. more.
2006-12-12	1.6	Mustang	System tray, subpixel antialiasing, Document-modal, Application-modal, Toolkit-modal, Applet splash screens, JTable sorting, true double buffering, digitally signed XML files, JWS support for *.ico and *.png, JavaCompiler (ability to invoke javac cleanly), JDBC 4.0, smart card API, Console. readPassword, improved drag & drop. Apple OS X 10.5 supports JDK 1.6.0_13. pluggable annotations, more.
not released yet 2010-10-??	1.7	Dolphin	There is still on-going discussion on what should be included. You can see early access code.