Glad that you brought this up about the latest on some Java info! I am a student at high school, where we don't have Perl taught at all (due to lack of competent teachers no less,) so instead, we are "taught" Java.
With the advent of this new compatibility, with Java basing on Perl's regex engine, it will make life more fun, at least in Java.
I thought this piece of info was interesting though: 'YAY FOR PERL!! And YAY for Sun ...' yay.