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Comment by jo_ | Hacker News Reader

People who aren't Java developers hate it because the JRE install is irritating as FUCK. The JDK is smooth sailing. Install, add JAVA_HOME, done. The JRE, on the other hand, pesters people to update once a week, adds a little tray icon, and installs the ASK toolbar by default. I'd always used the JDK, so I never noticed how gross it was until I installed the JRE for someone.

"This looks really different. Oh man it's asking you to auto-update. That's frustrating."

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    rpm -ivh jdk-<version>-linux-x64.rpm

    ~/.bashrc
    export JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/default/
    export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH

Was that hard?

I'm not sure what you're trying to refute. I was (am) saying that installing the JDK is really pleasant and painless. Installing the JRE is gross for the average Windows user because of all the bullshit that Oracle stuffs in there.

I think that is a common trend with Windows software. I haven't used Windows close to a decade now but I remember the atrocious malwares shipped in form of toolbars on Windows very clearly. And probably that is what forced me to move to a better development platform that Linux is.

It is not hard once you know. Finding out is one more thing. One more poorly documented thing at that I think.

Google is your friend. That is how I learned. I wasn't born with this knowledge.

What about Windows?

For Windows the JRE is bundled with all of the JetBrains products.

Really! Cool - I was not aware of that (only using them under Linux).

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