I need to be able to configure my Cisco ASA from my Win2k8 workstation. The configuration software for it tells me that I need to install the latest version of Sun JavaSE in order to use the software.

Sun tells me that, in order to run JavaSE on an R2 installation, I need to fork over $2500 for a 'java for business' entitlement. That's a bit outside of my price range.

I did a search of the fora for JSE, but nothing's come up... I'm kind of surprised, as I would think that the ubiquity of Java would make this relevant to pretty much everyone -- especially powerusers. Am I missing something?

Did you perhaps try to install the SDK?
I have just the runtime environment (JRE) and it works fine, no problems.

Awesome! The installer was insistent that I install JSE... but JRE seems to work nicely. Should have thought to try that myself