suggestion?

[Doug]

The JDK (java Developer's Kit) which now is called
J2SDK, and the runtime (JRE) is all free. There is
also a linux x86 version both at Sun and blackdown.

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.1/download.html
ftp://ftp.tux.org/pub/java/JDK-1.4.1/i386/01/

There are tools that cost money (integrated development
environments) but you don't need them. You can do
everything in emacs. I actually use VI and the linux
console (that's it!). Also, the NetBeans IDE from Sun
was free last time I checked.

http://www.netbeans.org/

I haven't spent a dime on java development tools
in many years of using it ...

   -- Doug