for someone who knows, quick question: What are the main differences between the Standard Edition and the Enterprise Edition?

Also: is a Java developer totally free to sell their own software, or must they purchase this right from Sun (in the form of product licenses, or some other screwy hoop-lah)?

About £800 usually

Seriously though

"Enterprise" editions usually come with more libraries available for "high end" applications.

From the T&C:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/ja...nse/index.html

See "SUPPLEMENTAL LICENSE TERMS" section C

Back to the original question. Standard Edition and Enterprise Edition are just a different sets of APIs. JEE are the APIs you use when writing server apps. J2E, you use for pretty much anything.

A Java developer can sell their software without distributing the JVM and without consulting Oracle. If you are writing client software and you require that a JVM is installed on a user's machine, several of the software installer packages can do this for you.

Alternatively, you can use the GCJ and compile your java programs to native binaries (I've done this in the past).

to my understanding if java developer has distributed licance then he can sell his softwares without any problem.

Originally Posted by DmitryS

to my understanding if java developer has distributed licance then he can sell his softwares without any problem.

If user's already have a JVM, it's a non-issue

If you distribute the JVM, the license just says you can't modify it