> First i need the correct  set of programs  installed on my pc. I use
Suse
> 8.1 at home, with its default  JDK version. (I don't remember which)
You can download either an RPM or a tarball with java  SDK 1.4.1 from
the following location:

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.1/download.html

You do have to set  your JAVA_HOME, PATH and CLASSPATH variables in
Linux, but the instructions provided are good.

>
> I need a good  IDE to work  with. I installed  Borland JBuilder 7,
but if
> there are any other suggestions, i'll give  them a try. Maybe
Eclipse? or
> sun  One?

Since I do mostly Server Side development with Java, I prefer
Eclipse. Which Desktop do you work in Gnome or KDE? You can get
Eclipse downloaded from:

http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/index.php

All you have to do is download it and untar or ungzip it into the
proper directory, set up your path and run with it. Installation
instructions are available for linux  from the eclipse  site.

> If i develop  a standalone app  with gui  in linux, will i be able to
make it
> work on win32 platforms?

I have developed standalone applications on Linux which ran
perfectly under Win32 EXCEPT --- if you have hardcoded a file path
to access a file, you might have problems. Probably best to set
them up in a .conf path somewhere.



> When i develop an applet, will i be able to test  if it works  fine
with IE?
> (I don't have an win32 partition, but maybe wine can make IE
work..)
If I am going to test an applet  with IE, I just run my Web Server on
my network and run it from another Windoz box. That way you are
testing your URL, your HTML and whether it runs in IE.

If you have the correct plugin, it should run in IE. There are
plugin compatability problems and if you are going to run an Applet,
you might want to use the AWT and JDK 1.1. This is unfortunate
since MicroSoft has truely attempted to SCREW JAVA!!!!

>
> If there are any other who develop Java apps  on a linux platform,
i'll
> need any other suggestions  of them.
>
I have been developing Java on both Windoze for 4 years and on Linux
now for a year and using "vi" on Solaris as an editor now for a
couple of months.... Good luck with your Java/Linux development. I
love to work on Linux because "I" control the environment... And if
you develop in Java correctly, it is 100 times more secure, and is
truely portable to all platforms.