Bret Busby skrev:
On Sat, 1 Aug 2009, Brian Marshall wrote:The source of information that led me to believe that Debian requires java, is, on the web page at http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/release-notes/ch-whats-new.en.html , where it states"2.7. Java now in DebianThe OpenJDK Java Runtime Environment openjdk-6-jre and Development Kit openjdk-6-jdk, needed for executing Java GUI and Webstart programs or building such programs, are now in Debian. The packages are built using the IcedTea build support and patches from the IcedTea project."
I believe the message should be interpreted as follows:Debian now _has_ a java implementation in its main repository, as opposed to previous versions when a java runtime environment was _only_ available in the non-free repository. This means that java programs _may_ now also be included in the main repository, as they no longer require non-free parts to be able to run.
That is, the message is much more like "debian can now properly include java applications", which is very far from "debian requires java application to be installed".
From the debian java FAQ on the status in 4.0 <http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-java-faq/ch-debian-java-etch.html>, I definitely get the feeling that the issue in that version was the difficulty to include java-applications in main, which I feel supports my interpretation.
Hope it helps / johan