I have been running Java on Ubuntu each release by just downloading directly from Oracle and exporting my JAVA_HOME and PATH variables. This is a pretty clean approach and allows me to use different JVMs for each type of application, and you can use update-alternatives to do it the Ubuntu way

Perhaps you could be a bit more clear. What Java situation?

I'm guessing he/she's asking what JDK/JRE is installed. Since 1.6 still seems to be the default for other OSes.

What Java?)