Best place to learn Java

java is a free language now owned by Oracle corporation. 
You can download the Java Development kit from oracle website. 
The best place of learn java is online. From online you can easily learn java.

You can use "notepad" to write java codes and then convert them to java class using JDK. or use a third party program i.e. Eclipse, Java Beans. etc to work on Java.

for java nearn to many ways have on the internet and that is best one 

These tutorials will introduce you to Java programming Language. You'll compile and run your very own Java application, using Sun's JDK. It is extremely easy to learn java programming skills, and in these parts, you'll learn how to write, compile, and run Java applications. Before you can develop corejava applications, you'll need to download the Java Development Kit (JDK). 

http://www.freejavaguide.com/corejava.ht... 
and you want to other platform for practical can click on this 
http://www.learnjavaonline.org/