Q:

Is there an alternative to Runtime.getRuntime().exec()

Just wondering, if there is something better, newer, safer, faster, etc than Runtime.getRuntime().exec().
I want to run another process from my application on linux, and this is the only way i know how. Would be nice to have an alternative.

A:

How about ProcessBuilder?
A bit more:
Introduced in Java 1.5, allows you to gain more control on the process environment - set the working directory, let you redirect the error stream to the input stream (from java POV) and a few more things. 
From Oracle's site:

ProcessBuilder - The new ProcessBuilder class provides a more
  convenient way to invoke subprocesses than does Runtime.exec. In
  particular, ProcessBuilder makes it easy to start a subprocess with a
  modified process environment (that is, one based on the parent's
  process environment, but with a few changes).

