Oracle has extended the support for version 6 of the Java Standard Edition (Java SE) yet again, so that now the end of public updates for it is scheduled for February 2013. There should be a last update release of Oracle's JDK 6 at the start of February 2013. Then, after 19 February, the updates will stop and there will be no more public releases of security updates, patches or fixes for Java SE 6. Those fixes will only be available, along with Java SE 5 fixes, to support Oracle customers with a commercial licence.

Originally, Oracle had planned the end of updates for Java SE 6, released back in 2006, for July 2012. With the later than expected arrival of Java 7, which only appeared in the summer of 2011, Oracle then decided in April to push that date back further, to November 2012. But it appears there's still a need for another few months before pulling the plug on the updates.

Oracle, as Sun before it, had promised to offer support and bug-fixes for at least three years after a major update was released, but with Java 7 having taken five years in development, this policy was somewhat strained, hence the extensions. Oracle's emphasis is, though, on getting users to update to Java 7 with it's new features and regular updates.

(djwm)