Recently I installed PhpStorm on Ubuntu that requires Sun JDK rather than the OpenJDK that Ubuntu installs with. It wasn't a matter of it running better with the Sun solution, which is proprietary...it doesn't run at all with OpenJDK. I tried simply uninstalling OpenJDK and installing Sun's JDK, but that didn't work...there were missing headers, etc., cryptic messages to a Linux n00b. I did find the solution, though, and am posting it here to make someone else's life easier.
sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://archive.canonical.com/ lucid partner" sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin sudo update-alternatives --config java I found some interesting comments about Sun JDK vs OpenJDK. In particular, that the Sun version is much better with graphics and fonts, and is much faster. Time will tell.