Installing Oracle Java
One of the things that Oracle did after it pried Java from Sun's cold dead hands was to change the license so that no Linux distributions could distribute it any more.
By default, Korora comes with the OpenJDK version of Java and you probably don't want to uninstall it because some applications depend on it. You can see the OpenJDK version when you query Java.
java -version
In order to install Oracle's Java it must be done manually, but fortunately it's not too difficult thanks to the way Java can be slotted (multiple versions installed) on Linux.
Head over to the Java download page and select either the JRE (runtime environment) or the JDK (development kit) of the SE (standard edition).
At the download page, agree to the license and then download the RPM for your architecture (64 bit JDK in the example below) and save it somewhere like your Downloads directory.
In our example, the file we downloaded is called _jdk-7u51-linux-x64.rpm _ however yours will most certainly be different so substitute as appropriate. Install Java
You can install this RPM using a graphical package manager if you like, however we also need to use the command line to configure the slotting so let's do it all there instead.
Open up a terminal program, such as Konsole in KDE, and install the RPM which should end with Complete! message.
sudo yum install ~/Downloads/jdk-7u51-linux-x64.rpm
Now that we have Oracle's Java installed you can see where this was installed to by running the following command.
rpm -ql jdk
Or if you're installing the jre, this.
rpm -ql jre
You will note that Java was installed to_ /usr/java/_ however the RPM also creates a symbolic link so that _/usr/java/latest _ always points to the version you have installed. That's great because we can use that when configuring our slotting and if you upgrade the RPM in the future you will automatically be running the latest version!
To add that new Java to the list of slotted versions we use the alternatives command. This looks complicated, but it's installing another option for the_ /usr/bin/java_ executable (called java) which is at /usr/java/latest/bin/java (where the RPM installed Java to). The number on the end sets the priority over any other java binaries (the highest number wins) when using alternatives in an automatic state (we will use manual).
sudo /usr/sbin/alternatives --install /usr/bin/java java /usr/java/latest/bin/java 999999
Now, we can select this version of Java to use as our default! Simpy run this command and select the number that corresponds with the /usr/java/latest/bin/java entry.
sudo /usr/sbin/alternatives --config java
If you installed the JDK you can also do the same for javac, the Java compiler.
sudo /usr/sbin/alternatives --install /usr/bin/javac javac /usr/java/latest/bin/javac 999999
sudo /usr/sbin/alternatives --config javac
Test that you're running the right version with the same version command we ran at the beginning when only OpenJDK was installed.
Note that you shouldn't see OpenJDK any more, but something like Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment along with the version you installed!
Unfortunately this is also a manual process, however now that you've already configured the slotting to use the latest symlink you can simply download and install the latest Java RPM as above.
Enjoy!