Apache Derby Looks Good

I need an embeddable JDBC database. I know HSQLDB. But my experience with it has not been satisfactory: reliability has more to be desired; huge startup time if you have some data, not just the toyish stuff. So I looked more. The natural place to start is certainly Apache DB project. Derby is a pretty recent entry that used to be Cloudscape. After reading the presentations here, here, here and here, I feel quite good about using it for the following purposes:

1. Local database, when I am offline and cannot connect to a remote development database. I was thinking of using PostgreSQL 8.0 Win32 version. Now Derby just seems to be good enough, small enough and easy enough.
2. Embedded database, my application needs a real and small database locally.

I have not used it yet. I hope its performance is acceptable at least. On the other hand, I don't see any reason why it should not perform as well as HSQLDB. I look forward to it.