Excellent write up here - Chet Haase’s Blog: Consumer JRE: Leaner, Meaner Java.

Exciting features:

• Quickstarter: Radically reduce the startup time for
  Java applications and applets.
• Java Kernel: Reduce the time-to-install-and-launch
  when the user needs to install the JRE in order to run an
  application.
• Deployment Toolkit: Enable easy detection and
  installation of the JRE.
• Installer Improvements: Improve the user experience of
  installation.
  Windows Graphics Performance: Enable default graphics
  acceleration for simple and advanced 2D rendering.
• Nimbus Look & Feel : Release a new cross-platform
  look & feel based on Synth.

Seems to bring a whole lot of improvements for JRE users as opposed to developers, but it’s a good thing to Java overall. I can’t believe that the JRE has ballooned up to 12MB over the years. It’s still leaner that the 21MB .NET framework though, and the Java Kernel should bring it down to slightly over 5MB for most Swing applications. Here’s to hoping applets can take off after this ‘fix’.