Difference between server JRE and client JRE [duplicate]

Question

I was going through server jre, when i extracted serverjre tar.gz , it gave me jdk folder. why does serverJRE gives JDK like folder. There is JRE folder inside serverJRE also. So which one to use, whole serverJRE or just JRE folder which is inside serverJRE. Also contents of JRE inside serverJRE is same as JRE inside JDK.

I am not understanding the difference.

Answer 1

Server JRE: It is used to deploy long-running java applications on server. It provides the fastest possible operating speed. It has been specifically fine tuned to maximize peak operating speed. It has highly aggressive algorithms to optimize the runtime performance of java application. It also includes variety of monitoring tools.

Client JRE: It is used to run java applications on the end-users systems. It contains everything to run the java applications. It can start up faster and requires a smaller memory footprint.

Answer 2

From Oracle's page.

The Server JRE includes tools for JVM monitoring and tools commonly required for server applications, but does not include browser integration (the Java plug-in).

So the difference is incredibly small. This would also mean that the difference between Server JRE and the JDK seems to be mainly that the JDK has a compiler. I didn't even realize that they have made the JREs into separate products, but over the years I can't remember anyone ever suggesting the Client JRE to anyone.

Considering that Applets are all but dead, I don't see any good reason to download the Client JRE. Then again I'm not in the business for desktop Java, so who knows.