First off, I apologize if this has already been answered elsewhere; please redirect me if this is the case.
I’m going to be buying a new computer solely for the purpose of developing in JME3. The OS must be GNU/Linux, and I’d like the cost to be less than $2000, but other than that there are no constraints. What hardware system is recommended to give me the least trouble with JME3, run all the bells and whistles, and not be too outdated during the next year as JME3 continues to develop?
In particular:
64 bit or 32 bit?
What graphics card and processor?
Would a solid state drive help significantly or not?
My current laptop and desktop systems crash on some of the examples in the JME3 test suite; I’d like whatever computer I get next to run them perfectly.
sincerely,
–Robert McIntyre
I’d recommend getting a quad core proc. and at least 4 Gb of ram
Also focus on the graphic card if you want the less trouble, i’d say any last generation nvidia or Ati card would do, with 1gb memory.
Nvidia’s shader compiler are a lot more permissive than Ati’s, so if you intend making shaders that will be distributed on other hardwaure I recomend ATi, it will save you some trouble when releasing your work…that said it won’t save all troubles but heh…
I have an ATI 5970 and it’s doing pretty well.
A 64 bit system, to be able to handle more than 3gb ram.
A solid state drive is nice but won’t give you more performances for JME, so save the money and put it in the video card. There are 2Tb good old disk at around 80$, that’s fine.
Also…ATM the GNU/Linux choice is not the best i’m afraid, I understand it’s not open to negotiation though 
Be aware that we still have a painful opengl canvas issue with linux, which can prevent you from using the opengl window in JMP.
This issue is priority 1 before the beta release though, so it won’t last forever.
Our downloads page (see bottom) states the minimum requirements.
64-bit should work fine.
There are some outstanding bugs in jME3 on Linux still, but hopefully they’ll be squashed in time for Beta-1. As for the broken examples you ran into, have you reported them? They really shouldn’t break on any decent computer.
Edit: By a 16 second margin Rémy… well played sir.
Actually for developing I can only recomment a ssd, while not changing the runtime performance at all, it greatly speeds up compiling if the workspace and ide are saved on it. (Also I recommend more like 8 gigs of ram, since java ide’s are usually kinda eating and it’s not that much difference in price.)
If you have a old pc that you can use as a basis I recommend reusing parts as well.
Cpu, depends on Ide you use and what other programs are running. I always found the amd to be a bit slower but far better in cost/performance same goes for the graficcard, not to mention that with nvidia you can compile shaders every other grafikcard would reject. (so if you plan to release it for the public this is kinda a problem)
I use:
intel64(at work)/amd64(at home)
nvidia gts220(at work)/nvidia gts250 (at home)
linux kubuntu 11.04, OpenJDK.
Works ok.
But the problem with the sceneViewer still exists as said @erlend_sh . Prepare to use only your code and brains, as only Material Editor will be working in JMP and linux. 
mifth said:
Prepare to use only your code and brains, as only Material Editor will be working in JMP and linux. :)
Just to be clear for newcomers jMP does not exempt you from using your brain :D