Starting with update 1.4.2v1, and now continued with v2 -- FINALLY Apple's Java has 'passed' my personal 'test' -- Yahoo Games. I play the Pinochle, and all the previous versions of 1.4 would leave text ragged. Not now, smooth as silk. But only after I 'checked the box' in prefs to "smooth text". Before, this was only possible in 1.3. Thank you Apple for keeping at it, and finally making Java as good as any other "program/app" we have.

*note* to Greg who posted below just a few, and wanting to revert back to 1.3 -- keep fishing, is a method of removing some "plist" (or something), and it works. The particulars are either posted here or at MacFixit -- keep looking and you should find it.