Open Browser window from Java program

If you can narrow it down to Java 6, you can use the desktop API:

http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/J2SE/Desktop/javase6/desktop_api/

Should look something like:

    if (Desktop.isDesktopSupported()) {        Desktop desktop = Desktop.getDesktop();        if (desktop.isSupported(Desktop.Action.BROWSE)) {            try {                desktop.browse(new URI("http://localhost"));            }            catch(IOException ioe) {                ioe.printStackTrace();            }            catch(URISyntaxException use) {                use.printStackTrace();            }        }    }

Use BrowserLauncher.

Invoking it is very easy, just go

new BrowserLauncher().openURLinBrowser("http://www.google.com");

after having read the various answers and various comments(from questioner), here's what I would do

1) try this java approachhttp://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/api/java/lang/ProcessBuilder.html

ProcessBuilder pb = new ProcessBuilder("myCommand", "myArg1", "myArg2");Map<String, String> env = pb.environment();env.put("VAR1", "myValue");env.remove("OTHERVAR");env.put("VAR2", env.get("VAR1") + "suffix");pb.directory("myDir");Process p = pb.start();

see more about this class:

http://java.sun.com/developer/JDCTechTips/2005/tt0727.html#2
http://www.javabeat.net/tips/8-using-the-new-process-builder-class.html

2) try doing this(launching firefox) from C/C++/ruby/python and see if that is succeeding.

3) if all else fails, I would launch a shell program and that shell program would launch firefox!!