Originally Posted by
antgaudi
If Java is architecturally neutral (runs on any OS), why are there several versions available to download of the Java SDK??
There are several versions because some have more cruft and unneeded functions than others. Of course, your application may need the functions and then you would not call them bloated.
Java and the runtime are OS neutral, but a lot of things that you may want to do are not. Picking up mouse actions, doing drag and drop functions, or emulating multi-touch are more or less dependant on the OS/platform.
Its easy to write Java applications that run exactly the same everywhere, but that usually means command line input and output, which many users won't use.
The fancier you want the application gets, video, music, gesture support, etc, the more you get tied into details of the platform.
For example, one of the separate versions of the Java Platform is targeteed at cell phones, smartphones, etc. These are unlikely to have 22" displays.
Or even fast network connections