It is possible to install Glassfish as any user but you will be limited to directories that are accessible (read/writeable) to this user. For example, all users should have a /home/ directory that they own. It would normally be possible to install Glassfish to this directory as well as any jdk you may require (rather than using gcc). The steps could be:
1. download and install jdk to /home/myusername/
2. download and follow instructions for Glassfish install. Make sure you use the full path to the java executable that exists in the /home/myusername/java installation.
You would end up with something like:
/home/myusername/jdk1.6_14
/home/myusername/glassfish-v2.1
that are owned by the myusername user.
Hope this helps and good luck!
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