Chapter 4. Software available in the Debian system

15

However, both the JDK and several free implementations of Java technology are available as

Debian packages. You can write, debug and run Java programs using Debian.

Running a Java applet requires a web browser with the capability to recognize and execute

them. Several web browsers available in Debian, such as Mozilla or Konqueror, support Java

plug ins that enable running Java applets within them. Netscape Navigator, while non free, is

also available as a Debian package and it can run Java applets.

Please refer to the Debian Java FAQ (

http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/

debian java faq/

) for more information.

4.7 How can I check that I am using a Debian system, and what ver 

sion is it?

In order to make sure that your system has been installed from the real Debian base disks check

for the existence of

/etc/debian_version

file, which contains a single one line entry giving

the version number of the release, as defined by the package

base files

.

The existence of the program

dpkg

shows that you should be able to install Debian packages

on your system, but as the program has been ported to many other operating systems and ar 

chitectures, this is no longer a reliable method of determining is a system Debian GNU/Linux.

Users should be aware, however, that the Debian system consists of many parts, each of which

can be updated (almost) independently. Each Debian  release  contains well defined and un 

changing contents. Updates are separately available. For a one line description of the instal 

lation status of package

foo

, use the command

dpkg   list foo

. To view versions of all

installed packages, run:

dpkg  l

For a more verbose description, use:

dpkg   status foo

4.8 How does Debian support non English languages?

  Debian GNU/Linux is distributed with keymaps for nearly two dozen keyboards, and

with utilities (in the

kbd

package) to install, view, and modify the tables.

The installation prompts the user to specify the keyboard he will use.

  Vast majority of the software we packaged supports entering non US ASCII characters

used in other Latin languages (e.g. ISO 8859 1 or ISO 8859 2), and a number of programs

support multi byte languages such as Japanese or Chinese.