Probably does not get more discussion since most people have it working just fine.
I installed the Sun Java packages using info from here:
http://stanton-finley.net/fedora_core_4_installation_notes.html#Java
This has worked just fine on all my systems.
There are similar instructions for using the jpackage method but I have not used that. Some may find that preferable, but I find getting the package directly from Sun works just fine. The link above details how to setup and use the alternatives method that was introduced a while ago.
Note that I have been using the 1.5.0_06 version of Java. Not sure if the newer version has issues or not. You might want to try a 1.5 version just in case.
I'm using jpackage and it works just fine. Last I checked the latest jpackage was still at 1.5.0_06 (no 1.5.0_07). I did have to manually copy the browser plugin into the firefox folder.