“In this installment, I’d like to touch on an oft-forgotten but
increasingly important component of the Linux desktop: Java
applications. Since Java is largely distribution neutral, what Java
code works on Fedora Core works for Debian, Red Hat, SuSE,
Mandrake, and any number of other distributions. And, yes, Java
applications really do exist, and some are actually good.“Due to licensing issues (bundling Java with an operating system
is a significant expense), Linux desktop distributions typically
omit the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), the engine that runs all Java
applications. But for our purposes, as end-users, that’s moot:
anyone can download and run Sun’s Java 2 Standard Edition for
free…”