Hello,
Java is only needed to minimize the javascripts that are compiled into the server. (We're not happy with this requirement, and looking for a better way to do this.)
The dist packages always come with the javascript pre-minimized, so they do not require java to compile. If you want to prevent the need to have java installed on a server system, you could run "make dist" on a desktop machine and use the resulting dist package to compile on the server system.
The 1.1.1 release is coming very soon - mostly likely today or tomorrow, if all goes well (waiting for the final OK from the testing team).
Regards,
Jaron