<p>Java is one of my programming languages of choice.  I always run into the problem though of distributing my application to end-users.</p>

<p>Giving a user a JAR is not always as user friendly as I would like and using Java WebStart requires that I maintain a web server.</p>

<p>What's the best way to distribute a Java application?  What if the Java application needs to install artifacts to the user's computer?  Are there any good Java installation/packaging systems out there?</p>

For simple Java apps I like to use Jar's.  It is very simple to distribute one file that a user can just click on (Windows), or
```
```
java -jar jarname.jar
```
```
IMHO, jar is the way to go when simplicity is a main requirement.