JRE seems mandatory??

>But why isn't it compiled to the native code by default? It's not like the filters are meant
to be copied to other platforms.

Perhaps a performance issue?
Compiled Java isn't necessarily faster than a JVM, probably because much more manpower has
been invested in the JVM than in a 'normal ahead-of-time' compiler.

Plus from a marketing point of view, I doubt that Sun would like this..