Scripts to install Oracle Java into openSUSE Oracle Java 1.7 JDK appears to continue to be supported actively despite an Oracle SE JDK 8 release. For that reason, these scripts will continue to be updated for the forseeable future. The scripts have been tested and believed to work reliably unless a new version is released. If any script is found not to work, simply create an issue in the Github repository.
This is the last scripts update supporting the last publicly released Oracle SE JDK 7u79. Oracle is releasing updates for Oracle SE JDK 8 only moving forward.
Today and probably for some time both Oracle SE 8 and Oracle SE 7 will be commonly used. So, a User may ask which one to install? Is the latest best?
First, probably the most important consideration is compatibility, will installing either cause problems? As it turns out, installing the older version (SE 7) is the better for most end-users. Any Java app compiled using SE 8 or SE 7 will run fine on any machine with SE 7 installed.
If you are a Developer creating Java apps, it may be preferable to build your app using SE7 as well, since End Users running either SE 7 or SE 8 won't have problems. On the other hand, if you compile your app running SE8, then there is a probability that only machines running SE 8 will run your app without problems.
The above two assertions and more can be found in the current Java Compatibility Guide
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/8-compatibility-guide-2156366.html
Differences in Components
A block diagram clearly describing current SE 8 architecture can be found at
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/tech/index.html
Oracle SE 7 differs from the SE 8 by inspecting the block diagram
- The three dark brown rows including and below "Java FX" are found in the SE 7 JDK, not the JRE
Incidentally, it seems to me that using this block diagram to compare to openJDK, all of the brown rows and a number of the blue blocks (eg monitoring, security, more) are not available in openjdk.
openSUSE 32bit or 64bit
Although scripts were created on 13.1, the scripts likely work on any version of openSUSE
openjdk is a prerequisite, else the directory /usr/lib64/jvm-exports would need to be created manually. AFAIK this affects only installing "openSUSE server" without a Desktop. When a Desktop is installed, openjdk is installed automatically.
Download this repository. If git is not already installed on your machine, the following command installs
zypper in git
After git is installed, you can clone this repository(create a copy on your local machine) with the following command so you have a local copy of the scripts
git clone https://github.com/putztzu/openSUSE_Oracle_Java_Install.git
The scripts are based on an Oracle JDK RPM installation. If a TAR is used instead, paths would need to be modified, so is highly discouraged.
The Oracle JDK RPM can be downloaded from
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk7-downloads-1880260.html
Assuming the RPM was downloaded using a web browser, cd to your Downloads folder, then
Install the RPM with the following command
zypper in jdk[tab to autocomplete the package name]
Then execute the scripts in their numbered order.
To switch between installed Java, use the update-alternatives utility
update-alternatives --config java