Oracle moving on from the 1.6 doldrums was a huge plus for Java and the JVM. Now the buzz is around 1.8 with lambdas and enhancements to performance of invoke dynamic.
And what's great is that since Apple has handed over responsibility of OSX Java over to Oracle it means everyone can start to use the 1.8 features.
Feels like everyone has been stuck on 1.5/1.6 for too long.
And with clarity around the future roadmap and the ever growing list of non-Java languages the platform has never looked better IMHO.