Our Programming Environment
Virtually any computer and operating system nowadays are capable of running Java programs and developing Java software. The two in most widespread use would appear to be Windows, in all its flavors, and Linux, also in all its flavors, but also (of course) the Mac, and (more recently) the Android platform.
We will be using the Windows platform for software development during this course. On the other hand, you will be submitting your homework over the web to a respository on a Linux machine (although in fact this is more information than you need to know just to perform a submission).