Minor Description
The auto-load driver (org.apache.derby.jdbc.AutoloadedDriver) is loaded by the DriverManager correctly (when running with jars in JDK 6) and fetching connections works without loading the driver.
But prior to getting a connection seeing if a driver is available using DriverManager.getProtocol("jdbc:derby:") incorrectly leads one to believe that no driver has been loaded.
Can see this running the junit test with jars and JDK6
org.apache.derbyTesting.functionTests.tests.jdbcapi.AutoloadTest
(This test can be run directly and is part of the ant targt test running)