Eclipse IDE Pocket Guide

System Requirements

Eclipse runs on today's most popular operating systems, including Windows XP, Linux, and Mac OS X. It requires Java to run, so if you don't already have Java installed on your machine, you must first install a recent version. You can download Java for Windows and Linux from http://java.sun.com; look for the J2SE SDK (Software Development Kit) package without a NetBeans™ bundle. Mac OS X has Java preinstalled. See Table 1 for the minimum and recommended system requirements.

Table 1-1. System requirements for Eclipse

Requirement	Minimum	Recommended
Java version	1.4.0	5.0 or greater
Memory	512 MB	1 GB or more
Free disk space	300 MB	1 GB or more
Processor speed	800 Mhz	1.5 Ghz or faster

In order to unpack Eclipse's download package, you will need a standard archive program. Some versions of Windows have one built in; for other versions, you can use a program such as WinZip (http://www.winzip.com). The other platforms come with an archive program preinstalled.

Tip

In the interests of space and simplicity, the rest of this book will focus on the Windows version of Eclipse. Other platforms will be very similar, although you may notice slight platform-specific differences.