JREs from different vendors on the same system

Solution 1:

You can install multiple JRE/JDK at a time. You just need to configure which one to use by using update-alternatives

sudo update-alternatives --config java

There are 2 choices for the alternative java (providing /usr/bin/java).

Selection Path Priority Status

0 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/bin/java 1061 auto mode

1 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/bin/java 1061 manual mode

* 2 /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk-amd64/jre/bin/java 1051 manual mode

Press enter to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number: 1

Similarly, you can configure your JDK with

sudo update-alternatives --config javac