Java Development Kit - JDK

On Ubuntu, the JDK is contained in the package sun-java6-jdk and can be installed with either apt-get or Synaptic. Distribution varies with other Linux versions and Windows users must get theirs from Sun - http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp.

The Windows installer requires nothing but the Linux version arrives without executable permissions which can be set from the command line with chmod +x jdk... or through the GUI - Right click jdk..., Properties, Permissions - set Executable or simply prefix the file name with "sh ".

I prefer installing everything in my home directory on Linux and MyDocuments on Windows. I can never see my Desktop in either case. Installing in this manner sets system-wide paths for neither applications nor browser plugins but I rely on distro provided packages for that. Since I rely on NetBeans for all of my Java development, command line convenience is irrelevant.

If JDK is not preconfigured, one can execute the following:

export JDK_HOME=$HOME/jdk1.6.0_02
export JAVA_HOME=$HOME/jdk1.6.0_02/jre
export PATH=$HOME/jdk1.6.0_02/bin:$PATH

Installing NetBeans will take care of all the messy path details and our goal here is the simplest possible imstallation