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FAQ Does Eclipse run on any Linux distribution?

Eclipse should work fine on any Linux distribution that has GTK+ 2.2.1 and higher—SWT is based on GTK2—and a 1.4 JRE. Motif versions require Open Motif 2.1, which is included in the Eclipse distribution. Although the Motif distribution has performance comparable to Windows, its clunky appearance makes GTK the widely preferred choice on Linux.

However, the Eclipse development teams are able to perform thorough testing only on a limited set of platforms. Consult the readme included with each Eclipse build for a detailed list of officially supported platforms.

Portability of Eclipse is defined mainly by the underlying Java runtime—Eclipse 3.0 needs a Java 1.4 runtime—and by what platform SWT runs on; namely, all graphical UI in Eclipse are based on SWT. Table 2.1 lists various standard Java runtimes. However, earlier versions of Eclipse have also been compiled with gcj

(http://www.klomp.org/mark/classpath/eclipse-gnome-gij.png) and even made to run on .Net, using IKVM on the CLR or Mono through the amazing work of Jeroen Frijters.

For any given Eclipse build, the supported platforms are listed in the readme file included with the download (readme_eclipse.html in the readme directory).

See Also:

The Eclipse download site (http://eclipse.org/downloads) IKVM (http://www.ikvm.net)


Operating System Processor Desktop Java 2 Platform
Microsoft Windows XP Intel x86 Win32 Sun Java 2 SDK, Standard Edition, version 1.4.2_03
Microsoft Windows XP Intel x86 Win32


IBM 32-bit SDK for Windows, Java 2 Technology Edition, version 1.4.1

Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS 3 Intel x86 GTK Sun Java 2 SDK, Standard Edition, 1.4.2_03 for Linux x86
Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS 3 Intel x86 GTK IBM 32-bit SDK for Linux on Intel architecture, Java 2 Technology Edition, version 1.4.1
SuSE Linux 8.2 Intel x86 GTK Sun Java 2 SDK, Standard Edition, 1.4.2_03 for Linux x86
SuSE Linux 8.2 Intel x86 GTK IBM 32-bit SDK for Linux on Intel architecture, Java 2 Technology Edition, version 1.4.1
Sun Solaris 8 SPARC Motif Sun Java 2 SDK, Standard Edition, 1.4.2_03
HP HP-UX 11i hp9000


PA-RISC
Motif HP-UX SDK for the Java 2 platform, version 1.4.2.00
IBM AIX 5L version 5.2 PowerPC Motif


IBM 32-bit SDK for AIX, Java 2 Technology Edition, version 1.4.1

Apple Mac OS X 10.3 PowerPC Carbon Java 2 Standard Edition 1.4.1 for Mac OS X
QNX Neutrino RTOS Intel x86 Photon IBM J9 VM for QNX

    Table 2.1   The Eclipse Reference Platforms


This FAQ was originally published in Official Eclipse 3.0 FAQs. Copyright 2004, Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. This text is made available here under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0.

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