It would be good to provide an easier way for Debian users to install Java. Currently there's quite a bit of rigamarole involved.

On straight debian systems it involves a manual creation of a virtual package as documented here:
http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-java-faq/
For ubuntu 5.10 it's a little easier as documented here:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JavaPackageBuildNewVersions

The latter points to a solution. Namely, Sun could easily provide a debian package alongside
the RPM package, because the ubuntu install proves that the RPM package already has the
right bits in it, since they just reshuffle the bits provided in the RPM to create
a debian package.

The suggested fix involves these parts:

   * Sun to provide a debian packaging of the JDK and/or JRE
   * Sun to provide a package repository compatible with apt-get

While this doesn't address anything about the free/non-free status of Sun's Java, it
isn't necessary to address that at all. APT supports installing non-free software and
a vendor of non-free software can run a debian package repository. For example the
Skype software can be installed on debian/ubuntu by properly configuring the apt sources.list.

Therefore this doesn't affect whether Java can be included in a debian distribution.
It would just make it easy for someone to install Java after installing their debian system.
Sun would publish a page saying "add this repository line to /etc/apt/sources.list" and
then to type something like

apt-get install java
update-alternatives --config java




Here's some useful resources

Debian's definition/policy for non-free software:
http://www.us.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-archive.html#s-non-free
Debian policy on java
http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/java-policy/
Information on apt:
http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/apt-howto/index.en.html
Debian new maintainers guide (shows how to build a package)
http://www.us.debian.org/doc/devel-manuals#maint-guide
Information for vendors on packaging products as .deb
http://www.us.debian.org/doc/manuals/distribute-deb/distribute-deb.html
how to create a debian-compatible repository
http://www.isotton.com/debian/docs/repository-howto/