Is there something we can do about Java?

[Scott Ritchie]

I've run into a few applications that simply assume Java is installed. 
They die horribly with a "javaw" not found.

My first inclination is to just pop up a message explaining what went 
wrong and how to fix it, with a clickable link to go Sun's Java download 
page.

This struck me as similar to the Gecko situation.  In principle, we 
could have a wine-java package containing Sun's binaries and then just 
install them automatically when they're on the system, referring the 
user to the website otherwise.

Distributions would then need to make these packages (just like 
wine-gecko), and also get separate permission from Sun.  This strikes me 
as rather feasible - Ubuntu already ships Sun's Java in its parter 
repository - however we'd need to work out how it would work technically 
here first.  Ideally, Sun's installer wouldn't need to be modified.

Thanks,
Scott Ritchie