Installing Java on Your Machine

The easiest way to install Java on your machine is to download the Java 2 SDK, available free from the Sun website at http://java.sun.com/j2se/downloads.html.

The SDK download includes the Java compiler, JVM, and the J2SE libraries. Also included are utility functions that can be useful when developing your programs. The Sun website has versions of the SDK for Windows, Solaris, and Linux operating systems. You can download the J2EE and J2ME libraries from the Sun Java website as well.

Other versions of the Java SDK are available from third-party sources. For example, you can download the SDK for Silicon Graphics' IRIX operating system from the SGI website. A collection of XML parser libraries can be obtained from the Apache Software Foundation website. Many other sources for Java class libraries exist and can be found by searching the Internet.