I was closely following the situation regarding the merge. As soon as I left my house, as my laptop is running reindex, it got merged. 
Anyhow, this is great news. RC1 will hopefully be released soon.
Update:
Anyhow, this is great news. RC1 will hopefully be released soon.Update:
When is activation?
That is not yet known at this time. I am still in two minds, if this is good or bad for Bitcoin. We need scaling, and we need innovation... but is this the only solution?
This is innovative scaling, unlike a block size increase.