SPARC-64 & JDK 1.3 or better

[Scott Merritt]

So, I finally decided that since I'm not really a Solaris admin, I'd 
install FreeBSD SPARC64 on my Sun Enterprise 420R that's been collecting 
dust lately.  It's got a couple CPUs and a lot of ram, so it seems like 
I should be doing something with it.

I write and deploy Java web applications.  I've never used FreeBSD and 
saw that the only disc images for SPARC64 started at 5.2.x ...  I 
realize that the current "production" quality release is 4.9, but it 
looks like that's a no-go for SPARC.  I burned the 5.2.1 CDs for the 
hell of it and then started looking around what to do for a decent 
JDK...  and that's when the confusion began.

I'd prefer to run JDK 1.4 ...  Is the best advice to wait around until 
something becomes more solid, or is there something out there that I 
should be looking at?  Is using the Linux compatibility the way to go 
and just get the JDK from Sun directly?  Doesn't this require I use some 
patches or something?

Just a little overwhelmed and wondering what the best approach would 
be.  Thanks.

-- 
 http://smerritt.com