The Embedded Angle

This topic being approached exhaustively may become vast and is fit for at least a book. I'll have to keep it short and concise here, so I'll stick to a few key points: Java Runtime vs JDK - actually there is no discussion here - if you you intend to run programming projects you need the development kit, period. (It contains the runtime anyway.) Java 7  vs Java 8 (JDKs) - this could require some debate. Java 7 is the mature and default option to go with. Having around two years in production, it is the safer choice. Java 8 has been just released, and its shortcomings are still unknown. On the other hand Java 8 has numerous improvements to the language, and Oracle wouldn't approve it for release if it wasn't quite well tested. Another facet to be considered is that Java 7 is well presented in the repositories, while currently Java 8 have to be downloaded, installed and maintained (the regular updates - mostly for security reasons) all manually. Source examples - ne