Multimedia components and proprietary programs

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The New Java

To use Java applications, you need a Java Runtime Environment (JRE). Ubuntu does not provide Oracle's proprietary Java version anymore  – only the free OpenJDK. Because some Java programs had problems in the past with OpenJDK, many users often resorted to the proprietary Java (sun-java ). However, that's missing now because Oracle put it under a nonfree license. Because the proprietary Java is compatible with OpenJDK 7 – the official Java reference – most Java programs should make do with the free Java. You can install the software from the openjdk-7-jdk and icedtea-7-plugin packages, and the older version from openjdk-6-jdk and icedtea-6-plugin via the following command:

$ sudo update-alternatives --config java

This step activates one of the parallel installed Java versions. If an app refuses to run, it's best to submit a bug report at the Ubuntu wiki [7].

Seek and Ye Shall Find

You can install many proprietary apps and multimedia codecs from the existing repositories. Numerous Windows programs run in the Wine Windows-compatible environment [8]. Also, take a look in the Ubuntu package manager for a free alternative.

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