I started evaluating KNOPPIX iso's about a year ago with an eye toward using it to teach Java in AP Computer Science next year. At that time KNOPPIX was still not very user friendly (root access to use /mnt/floppy, etc) but it already showed a lot of promiss (2GB of apps due to on the fly decompression, auto detection, etc) so I kept my BigSlack Slackware Linux install to teach C++ (GCC g++).

Also, KNOPPIX had Java JRE (for the browser) but not SDK (software developers' kit). I suggested to Klaus to add it in and I thought he hadn't. I could only compile a console app (no applet for the web or graphics) with GCC's gcj.

Just for fun, I decided to write a HelloWorldApp.java (console app) and try javac. I was able to compile it to HelloWorldApp.class and interpret it with java HelloWorldApp. This much I was able to do with gcj, but now I used javac and everything worked.

OK, so I tried an applet. I wrote HelloWorld.java (an applet, not a console app) importing java.applet.* and java.awt.* just to see what would happen. Well, I compiled this file with javac HelloWorld.java and had no error (this never worked before) and got HelloWorld.class.

Now, I tried appletviewer HelloWorld.class and got a pile of errors, but eventually got the applet running. I then wrote a Hello.html file with the applet tag. When I clicked on Hello.html from the desktop folder, lo and behold, Konqueror ran it fine!

Did I miss something here? Did Klauss add the SDK without telling anyone? When did this happen? All I know is none of this applet stuff worked with the July iso, but I was using the november one today (v3.1-2002-11-08-EN) and it was glorious!

Thanx Klaus!