KevinO wrote: > I found this link using Google... Don't know if it's what > you want or not. > > http://ftp.cdut.edu.cn/pub/linux/develop/LinuxJVM/ibm-jdk-l118-linux-x86.tgz Thanks again, Kevin. Yes, that's the file I wanted, but as I said in my previous message, I decided I don't want to use an unknown source in China or Russia for a piece of software that is kind of central to my system. Of course maybe I'm being silly here -- I don't know who runs all those Debian mirrors worldwide, but at least they are sort of semi-official. But I MUST BE MISSING SOMETHING, as usual. I doubt that Joe Bfstplk[1] could have worse luck installing Linux. I have been trying to install Debian for the past week, because I heard all the talk about how wonderful apt-get is. So this is the first time I actually typed an apt-get command, and it's turning out to be just as fruitless as my aborted attempts using RPM. Please understand, I'm trying to learn Linux as something other than a cult phenomenon. I started a long thread a few months ago by griping that the Linux desktop refuses to work for me. So now I'm griping again, out of "principle", because I have to search worldwide And I've heard that Debian is so true to the concept of Free Software, yet it's held hostage to a single corporate site. Does the X window system *really* depend on this *one* file hidden out of reach deep in the citadels of IBM, with its only (unauthorized) mirrors in China and Russia? That's a pretty slim thread to hang the whole Linux desktop on! I mean really, this seems a little bit surreal. Isn't there a different version of X that I could install instead? X is way older than Java, so I don't understand why the only way I can get a GUI on a Debian system is to use this one specific Java Development Kit, available from exactly *one* defunct URL in North America, or *one* that may work in Asia, or maybe *one* in East Europe. Just call me Indiana Bfstplk, the hapless continent-hopping seeker of lost legendary files. My language is becoming quaint. I'd better go to bed now. ;-) Thanks fer listening ... Vic [1] Bfstplk? See here: --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change you mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss