Is a Java package the equivalent of a .Net assembly?
No.
The best comparison would be with a Java ARchive (Jar) file. Java uses packages to control the namespace, and is very similar to C#'s Namespaces.
Here is how I'd compare the environments
Java .Net==== ====Class ClassPackage NamespaceJar Assembly
No, I think a Java package would be more similar to a namespace
And an assembly would be more like a jar (I'm not so sure about this, as I'm much more familiar with Java than .Net... correct me if I'm wrong)
A Java package is like a namespace in .NET.
The equivalent to an assembly in Java is jar file.