Well besides the fact that your "Java hogs the CPU" idea is outdated, there are alternative clients besides Frostwire.
Frostwire acts on the Gnutella file sharing network, so you can just get one of many Linux Gnutella clients, such as Limewire, Phex, or some of the many available (try
http://freshmeat.net/search/?q=gnute...Go.x=0&Go.y=0). Note that there are plenty of non-Java clients, unless you are biased against other languages.
Another option is to "nice" the Frostwire process, which means it will yield to other processes, and should make any high CPU usage less painful. From a console you would do:
Code:
nice --adjustment=19 frostwire &
The final option is to upgrade your current version of Frostwire. You didn't elaborate on why the latest version won't install for you, but I'd suggest trying the above options before trying to troubleshoot Frostwire.