Java on Fedora 6

Here's another reason to avoid Fedora. I don't know exactly what sort of Java comes installed with Redhat's Fedora 6 Linux, but save yourself some grief. Head over to Sun,

http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp

and get a current JDK/JRE.

For one thing the JVM Redhat is including with Fedora 6 is 1.4.2, which is pretty old in my opinion. I've already been doing things that require 1.6. Secondly, the GNU Java maybe more open, true, and you may heve some feelings about that, but the Sun JVM is the reference implimentation. So, if you're wanting to get real work done, it better run on the Sun JVM.
At the very least, there's significant benefit in having more than one JVM available.

Note, you can switch JVMs by simply changing your PATH (and CLASSPATH if you've got one). Or, what I like to do is make an /opt/java a symbolic like to whatever Java install I want to use at run-time.

Eclipse can be configured to know about multiple Java installs and so you can switch between them at will. You can also run Eclipse with one Java, but run and debug your application with other Java. Situations where this is needed come up more than one might think. I do it all the time.