I have been asked to write a java program on linux platform. According to system admin, the JRE on the linux system is GIJ, which is supposed to be compatible to JRE 1.4.2.
java version "1.4.2"
gij (GNU libgcj) version 4.1.2 20080704 (Red Hat 4.1.2-44)
Copyright (C) 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
- Is
gijstable enough for commercial use? - Should I ask them to install JRE 6.0 from Sun?
- What problems should I expect if I target
gij?
Currently I am using WinXP, JDK 6.0, and Eclipse for software development.
gij is very ancient, and while I don’t have references I doubt it’s reliable enough to support commercial applications. That, and Java 1.4 is a chore to program in.
If your systems administrator is willing to install and support a newer version of Java, it’d probably be best to have them do it.
If the proprietary nature of the Sun JRE concerns you, you should look at OpenJDK. Released under the GPL, it supplants the FSF’s efforts with GCJ/GIJ . It’s the default version of Java that comes with many open-source Linuxes, such as Debian, Ubuntu, and Fedora. Besides being free, it’s also modern—OpenJRE 6 is fully compatible with Sun’s JRE6.