Hey Emmanuel,
When my system used the Iced Tea version of Java, the compass rose looks huge with a thick ring around it. It doesn't look anything like the screenshots until it is resized. It's Iced Tea's fault. When I open it in Sun's version of Java, all looks well with it. :D
Well I tied the newest beta and opened the kitchen that was made in 2.6 and found the "Modify compass" option and selected "Show Compass" but it is underneath the home. I can't get at it to move it. See this screenshot:
This is how it looks in IcedTea Java:
