How come NetLogo won start up on my Linux machine?
Ideally, any Java runtime version 1.4.1 or greater will run NetLogo. However, some Java implementations do not support features which NetLogo uses, such as Java2D and Swing. An example is the GNU libgcj based runtime on Linux, which comes preinstalled on some Linux distributions; NetLogo does not work with this runtime. We recommend Sun’s Java runtime when using NetLogo on Linux. (IBM’s may also work.) Ubuntu users should consult https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Java.