Installing Java

GeoServer is a Java application. So, we need to ensure that you have it installed and properly working on your machine, but you don't need to know how to write Java™ to install or to get started using GeoServer.

There are two main packages of Java. Depending on what you are planning to do with Java, you may want to install a JDK (Java Development Kit) or JRE (Java Runtime Environment). The former enables you to compile Java™ code, while the latter has all you need to run most Java applications.

Starting from release 2.0, GeoServer does not need a full JDK installation and you can go safely with JRE. It works well with Java 6 but as Java 7 is not deeply tested by developers, it should work but you may experience minor issues. Unless you have some strong reasons to use Java 7, you should use JRE 6.

In the 90s, Java development was started by Sun Microsystems. Sun has developed each new release until it merged into Oracle Corporation. While Oracle did not change the Java license...