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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)
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.