Re: heavy lags in 1.1
As far as I am concerned with the -Dsun.java2d.opengl switch all that Java does it to change the default graphics pipeline (which seems to be ancient on linux) to the OpenGL implementation that is offered to it by the underlying system. So, if the OpenGL implementation and graphics drivers are up and working, it should use hardware acceleration accordingly.
Think it, design it, build it, run it. That's what I do.