Last summer, Sun announced Dell Corp and Hewlett Packard Co agreed to ship systems installed with Sun's
Java Runtime Environment (JRE), which contains the JVM along with core classes and files to run Java applications.
When Java was introduced, it primarily consisted of two components: the programming language specification, and the
Java runtime environment specification that described the features of a JVM.
Sun Microsystems Inc expects OEMs and ISVs to begin shipping the company's
Java Runtime Environment (JRE) with their products, following agreements with Dell Computer Corp and Hewlett Packard Co.
Programmers can take advantage of the included
Java Runtime Environment to create Java-based user interfaces or to make use of standard Java libraries in Mathematica.
Maplets is available for download to Maple customers who subscribe to Waterloo Maple's Extended Maintenance Plan and includes the
Java Runtime Environment 1.2.2 (I experienced problems when trying to run Maplets with JRE 1,3 or 1.4, although Waterloo says it should work with both of these).
* Written completely in JavaTM, ObjectDomain 2.x will run on any platform that provides a
Java Runtime Environment.
We do seem to be in general agreement that it should be network connected and with little or no built-in software, other than some form of browser and a
Java runtime environment, and it should host a potentially lightweight footprint at a lower cost than a PC.