You may be interested to know that last week a new version of Java 5 was released. It fixes some bugs and security issues with prior Java versions, so it's probably a good idea to upgrade at the next available opportunity. If you're an end user you only need the Java Runtime Environment (JRE), not NetBeans or the JDK.
I installed it this morning and it appears to be much faster than previous Java 5 releases, but I'll reserve full judgement for a while in case this is just a post-install fluke.
I’ve never understood Java’s naming conventions.
Somehow, in Sun’s mind 1.2 = 2 and 1.5 = 5. Did the leader of the Java project skip a lesson in primary school and everybody’s too polite to tell them?
Erm, actually, this is still Java2, it’s just Java 2 version 5, even though it’s really Java 2 version 1.5. Last year a guy from Sun Microsystems came in to the university to talk about what was new in Java 5 and even he seemed confused.