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I don't think Ant is dead or dying. Yes, 1.7.0 is quite old already, but 1.8.0 is in the works if you look at the repository. Some of my feature requests are included, and Ant-contrib is also being developed. Unfortunately, Ant and Ant-contrib together still don't allow me to do everything I want to do in my build scripts, so I am still developing my own tasks, and I imagine others are doing the same. There is room for improvement, and I'm sure Ant will improve.

Make was released way back in April 2006. Since then, there hasn’t been a single update. Not even a maintenance release. Now, make is a relatively mature product. It’s been out a while and is quite stable. But it’s certainly not bug free.

are you windows user or something, who just cant live without software being updated all over and over again?

i love ant. i use it independent of java projects.
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If you like Ant, check out Gant, seriously. It has all of the venerable tasks of Ant (e.g. javac) without the pain associated with logic and macro tasks. You can simply use your own objects/closures/etc.

I have studied Gant recently and wonder if a new order for projects will be something like:

main/src
test/src
build/src
build/test

where the bottom 2 directories contain code and _unit tests_ for the build functionality. As I write this, the organization isn't symmetrical but the gist of the idea is here.