This tutorial will help you install Java Runtime Environment or JRE on Ubuntu 24.04. We will use the free software version, the GNU GPL licensed one, from the popular OpenJDK Project. JRE is required by a lot of software applications coming from both our Free Software Community as well as custom ones made in your organization. Now let's start installing!

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Why Would You Need JRE?

You would need Java Runtime Environment (JRE) whenever you need to run applications written in Java programming language. You would also need JRE to run a specific functionality that requires Java of your current application. There are actually a lot of such applications, from both public and private types of them, including programs mentioned below, custom programs available on the net, custom programs used internally in your corporation and many more.

List of Programs Written in Java 

These are examples of software applications and games (or some functionalities in them) that require JRE to run on Ubuntu:

1. LibreOffice (the Ubuntu office suite),

2. Arduino (IDE),

3. Freecol (game),

4. Jmol (chemistry),

5. PDF Split and Merge (printing press),

6. Scilab (mathematics),

7. Sweet Home 3D (architecture), and

8. Tux Guitar (music/multimedia).

Find more under References section below.

How To Install JRE

1. Run Terminal.

2. Type the following command line followed by Enter:

$ sudo apt-get install default-jre

3. Wait for the process to finish. This will require some hundreds of MB data downloaded from the internet.

4. Installation finished. Done.

5. To check installed JRE version:

$ java --show-version

That should shows information like this:

openjdk 21.0.5 2024-10-15
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 21.0.5+11-Ubuntu-1ubuntu124.04)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 21.0.5+11-Ubuntu-1ubuntu124.04, mixed mode, sharing) 

That means the JRE version is 21.0.5.

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See Also

Alternatives to Visual Basic

Learn Ubuntu from The Basics - A Complete Tutorial Collection

Setup Java Programming Tools on Ubuntu with Geany and OpenJDK 

Setup Java Programming Tools on Ubuntu with Netbeans and GUI Builder

Setup Java Programming tools on Ubuntu with Eclipse and GUI Builder

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References

OpenJDK Official Website

Java (full explanation) on Ubuntu Documentation Wiki

List of free software applications written in Java on wikipedia

Java (programming language) on Wikipedia

Java Runtime Environment (JRE or JVM) on Wikipedia

Sun Microsystems on Wikipedia