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My question is similar to the one asked in this forum in 2010 - "is JRE installed in Windows & Linux?". And I am wondering if things have changed since then

In particular, my site hosts a downloadable Java application that basically transmits specific files from the user's PC to our server. But every now and then I find that some of my users - all non-techies - don't have JRE installed. And hence, I have to ask them to install JRE first.

Asking users to download something before they can start using my application can only ruin the end user experience. Understandably, that is a no-no. And so, I am ready to re-implement the application. But before I can propose re-implementing the app in some other technology - like Qt - I need facts to make a case. In particular, I would like to know

  1. Is it safe to assume that any PC with an OS that is XP or above would have JRE installed on it?
  2. Is Qt a viable - and preferable - option for making a "download-now-use-now" type of application? Don't Qt applications need a JRE equivalent too?
  3. Are Qt applications able to update themselves like Java apps can?
  4. Other than having to maintain/compile multiple versions of Qt, are there any other disadvantages to using Qt?

Thanks for your responses Abhinav

  • This clearly is a programming question and would be better of over at Stackoverflow. Please do not repost it there but flag it and have it moved. – Baarn Jul 10 '12 at 21:26
  • The first question might be on topic here on superuser, but at least the other three are not. – Baarn Jul 10 '12 at 21:29
  • Why not just install a [private JRE](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4283388/stripping-the-jre-to-be-bundled-with-an-application-what-can-i-omit) with your application's installer? Alternatively, why not use a platform-specific executable wrapper that can install the JRE for the user (e.g. [JSmooth](http://jsmooth.sourceforge.net/))? – Daniel Pryden Jul 10 '12 at 22:57

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No, it is still not safe to assume that every machine had the JRE installed, though it is easy to install for every machine.from the Java website. Java is not installed by default on any Windows computer but I believe it is installed by default in many Linux distributions.

Qt is a GUI front end system for other programming languages. I know of Qt implementations for C, Python and now Java. If you are intending to use Java Qt then you will need to use the JRE to run it, it is not a way to get around restrictions of Java but is instead a way to make applications look consistent even though they are written in different languages.

A Java Qt application will have the same abilities as a normal Java application in terms of updating.

Mokubai
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