Which linux distro for java programming??

[Ben Buchli]

Hi guys,
which distro are you using (preferably on a laptop with widescreen), and what jdk is supported?

I tried slackware, and I liked it, but my laptop didn't. So I checked out gentoo, which both - me and my laptop - like very much. The bummer is: it supports only jdk 1.4.1. And I'm supposed to write code for 1.4.2.

Thanks for your help.

[Gregg Bolinger]

The latest version of Mandrake works great on my laptop as well as Java.

[Joe Ess]

To install JDK 1.4.2_04 on Gentoo:
Download the Linux Platform 1.4.2_04 self-extracting bin file from here.
As root:
Move the file to /usr/portage/distfiles/
Make the file executable
Install:
#emerge sun-jdk-1.4.2.04-r2.ebuild
To make the 1.4.2_04 VM the default for the system:
#java-config -S sun-jdk-1.4.2.04

More on java-config.

[Ben Buchli]

Thanks for the info guys!!

Joe, I'm gonna try it as soon as possible. I read somewhere that the 1.4.2_04 is not fully working under gentoo, or is it?

Thanks,

Ben

[Joe Ess]

Originally posted by Ben Buchli:

I read somewhere that the 1.4.2_04 is not fully working under gentoo, or is it?

Linux distributions differ mostly in philosophy since they use the same kernel and GNU tool codebase. What works on one (platform and set of libraries) should work on another.
What you may have heard is that the Gentoo _philosophy_ prevents them from distributing Sun's java because it is a binary (Gentoo is all about compiling from source) and Sun requires the end user agree to a license before downloading. Gentoo is distributed with Blackdown Java, which has a more flexible license. There's nothing preventing you as an end user from installing and running whatever (IBM, Sun, Blackdown) Java runtime you want, and the java-config tool makes it possible to have more than one SDK/JRE at the same time.
[ July 13, 2004: Message edited by: Joe Ess ]

[Ben Buchli]

Hey Joe, thanks for the clarification!

I got one more problem though:
how do I build the ebuild file? I'm pretty new to linux and especially gentoo, so please give me detailed instructions.

[Joe Ess]

#emerge sun-jdk-1.4.2.04-r2.ebuild

[sun ram]

Hi,

We have used Redhat 7/8/9 and Enterprise Linux with IBM & JDK for different application, we didn't have much problem with it.

Also for some application I Am using SuSE 9.0/9.1.

-SR