Steffen Evers <mldeb@forevers.de> writes: > I would like to get Java running on my Debian box. > What is the best procedure? apt-get install java-virtual-machine This will list all available packages providing a JVM. Select one and install it via apt-get. > I have heard about various different Javas: Sun, IBM, Blackdown, > Kafe(?), ... > So, I wonder what the differences are and which advantages each has. "kaffe" is a free implementation of a Java 1.1 runtime environment, with partial 1.2/1.3 support. No compiler. Intel's Open Runtime Platform is another free VM, forming a runtime environment together with GNU classpath, installable as "orp". This one is only for the i386 architecture; support for ia64 is in the works. The following two options are not DFSG-free, and therefore discouraged unless you definitely need functionality. There is Blackdown's port of the Sun JVM to Linux. This is available as "jdk1.1" (runtime), "jdk1.1-dev" (compiler, etc.), and maybe in the future as "j2re1.3" (runtime), "j2sdk1.3" (compiler). Biggest advantage is Java2 support, obviously. And it has more-or-less exactly the official Sun bug^Wfeatures. The IBM Java Developer Kit is not even distributable, so Debian only has an installer package for it. Not sure about the advantages of this one. Have I forgotten something? -- Robbe
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