Steve says:
Good news everyone. As of revision 382, K2 now fully utilizes the jQuery JavaScript library. K2 no longer uses Prototype and script.aculo.us. They are no longer bundled with K2. Rolling Archives and Live Search should be functioning properly. Live Comments needs a few cosmetic tweaks. Text Trimmer is disabled and needs to be ported. #
Wow, that's terrific news!
Any word on how suitable for production use, compared to 0.9.6?
Not as such. I wouldn't personally use it, if that's any help.