> I read somewhere (IIRC) that it should be somehow possible to have a
> jdbc driver that doesn't need dll's or anything and would make it
> possible to do all connecting to the database from pure java
> (somthing with JDBC 4).

You have confused something. Jaybird implements the wire protocol to the
server in Java, but it can't access the database file from Java. In
other words, when you have running Firebird server (a standalone process
that listens to the network socket), you can use pure Java driver and
you don't need DLLs.

But this won't replace you the Firebird Embedded if you want to access
the database file from Java - Jaybird driver has no idea what is stored
in the file, no idea how to execute SQL, it just translates the JDBC API
into native Firebird API.

> What is the current status,

Production ready - it have been used since 2002 or so :)

> since this would
> make it very feasible to make a portable application. Say I create
> exe files for windows and sh script for *nix and I just dump
> everything in one directory and the application 'just works'

Well... nothing speaks against having such solution with Firebird
Embedded - only don't forget to include the required DLLs :)

Roman