NetBeans IDE Testimonials

People are saying great things about NetBeans - here's some of what we've heard about recent NetBeans releases. Thanks for your support and feedback! Got something to say about NetBeans ?

• Dwight Fellman - Senior Software Developer

  I'm a senior software developer at Datacard in Minnetonka; I've just started attending classes at St. Thomas University (Minnesota) in their Graduate Program in Software, working on a MS in Software Engineering degree. By day, I use Microsoft tools exclusively.

I was looking forward to learning Java as part of my first course at St. Thomas. I was not willing to go back to command-line edit and compile. I asked around work, and most of the other Java developers at Datacard were using Eclipse, or other commercial IDE's.

I stumbled across NetBeans, and I've got to tell you: This is a fantastic product (v5.5). I've got EVERYTHING I'm used to in VS.NET, and more. For example, the beta version of the UML diagramming tool is fantastic; much better than Microsoft's limited class-diagrammer. I've got built-in refactoring, and JUnit to boot.

Between work and classes at St. Thomas, I've got little time for anything else. If I wasn't so busy, I'd like to present a "Java and Netbeans for VS.NET Developers" session at an upcoming Code Camp. Or something like that.

Bottom line: St. Thomas should be PUSHING NetBeans to all their software students. It's a no-brainer. They're already using Java for everything, as far as I can tell. They do have Eclipse installed on workstations as a standard item. However, I have not heard it mentioned. And, from my personal experience, the learning curve was way too high with Eclipse. I'm returning the CD for Rational Rose to the department tonight, uninstalled, because of the onerous licensing from Rational. I've got the UML working inside NetBeans well enough, and the price is right.

I'd just like to thank whoever is responsible for developing NetBeans and getting it to its current state of development.

• Sean Anderson - Datavirtue

  I had been studying Java for some time when I decided it was time to start my company's business management package. In the early stages I began to dread the user interface development as it would take a large amount of my development time.

Something made me check out NetBeans again; I had evaluated previous versions 3.51 - 4.0 and deleted them both. This time was different, version 5 grabbed a hold of me and hasn't let go since.

Whereas at this time I would be muddling through the early stages of my development it is less than a year later and the basic application is complete! It seems that a successful software package REALLY starts to shine at version 5 and NetBeans is no exception.

• Sandeep Mukherjee - Engineering Student

  This is Sandeep Mukherjee, an Engineering Student in love with Java. As a developer I always wanted a Java IDE with integrated support for GUI development. I tried every IDE from IntelliJ Idea 4.5 to Eclipse to Jbuilder. Idea is quite easy to manage for small projects, but its GUI builder gives less flexibility with only few layouts. JBuilder is quite huge on memory & complex, though it gives some cool ways to develop GUI, but again, it was too complex to work with for small projects. Again remember they all are paid softwares....

But your Netbeans is G..O..D.. It is cool whether you are developing big projects or small ones. Its GUI builder is just C..O..O..L. I always wanted the flexibility Visual Basic provide in their GUI development to be available to Java but wasn't able to get it anywhere. My search ends here when I discovered Netbeans 5.0... And above all its free...Hats off to you people...

May god give you strength and all you need to continue your Mission... If any time you people need me I will do whatever I can for you...

• Ted Streit

  I am new to writing code in general, I ask a programmer who I work with what programming language should I learn to excel my career. He pointed me in the direction of Java, so I started by writing the code by hand. He then told me about these IDEs, so I start testing all sorts of IDEs, then I came across NetBeans 5.0, and found that it has all the tools that I was looking for! The GUI builder is great, I love the collaboration feature, and I also like the the fact that it not only checks your code for errors but also make suggestions on fixing it. My co-worker, who got me hooked on writing Java, are now working together, using collaboration, on writing a program that will engulf almost every feature of NetBeans from the GUI builder, to writing beans, and incorporating SQL statements. I have been working with Java NetBeans for almost a year now, and I am doing things that I never thought imaginable, NetBeans has made that possible!

• Peter B. West

  I've been using NetBeans since 4.0. I moved over from Eclipse because of the Java 5.0 support. I saw (and understood) the distress of long-time users who had to adopt the new paradigm. I think it was a courageous and correct decision to align the product with Ant. On top of that, the implementation of that decision through 4.0, 4.1 and now 5.0 has been a technical tour-de-force, IMO. Sun should coin a discreet but stylish badge - NetBeans Team - that you can all wear with pride.

• Dr. Y. Daniel Liang - Professor

  I am teaching a course titled "Rapid Java Application Development". I have 18 students in the class, who already had three semesters of Java programming. Now I teach them how to use NetBeans 5.0 for rapidly developing GUIs and other things. Matisse is free like VB, and better than VB because it is platform-independent and the layout is resizable. It is obviously fast to develop GUIs using Matisse. The NetBeans GUI free-style designer is built using Matisse, but students don't need to know Matisse at all. In fact, students can use NetBeans to create GUIs without knowing any layout mangers.

• Greg Ritchie - TopMind Systems

  While I think Eclipse is a good IDE platform, NetBeans kills it by being a complete package, ready to use, for enterprise development. I like Ant too so that helps. Plus I hate SWT... Swing is pretty good actually. I hope you continue to grow and capture mindshare out there.
I think there's room out there for two leading Java toolsets. NetBeans is making a case for it anyway. Although Eclipse is starting to add J2EE support, I think they are 1-2
years away from a stable platform.

• Marcelo Sousa

  Our project team is now experiencing more productivity, especially with the new Matisse GUI builder. It's really easy to use! Moreover, I clearly noticed performance improvements in NetBeans 5.0. We defininately have abandoned Eclipse and more than a thousand plug-ins.

• Rob Ratcliff - Software Consultant with FutureTek LLC

  I used Netbeans Matisse to generate a simple applet. It was much faster to generate the Swing form than the equivalent HTML form!

• From SEA Tecnologia

  We, from SEA Tecnologia, are very satisfied with the NetBeans experience we have had on the Coleta project at the Brazillian Ministry of Education. With the productivity NetBeans 5.0 gave us, we were able to reach our customer's short time frame requirements and redevelop an entire Java backend without any surprises -- not even when we were using the NetBeans 5.0 Beta 2 version.

• Keuller Magalhães

  This new version is excellent. I am beginning to migrate my Eclipse projects to NetBeans, because working with NetBeans is very easy and very simple. This new version is a pleasure to work with, the project structure is best organized and Ant integration is perfect. I am adapting to NetBeans, but that adaptation is going to be very good, after a long time of using Eclipse. If I can help you with anything, you can request me. I would like to contribute to the NetBeans project.

• Abdulla Khawatreh

  I am currently developing mobile applications using NetBeans mobility pack, I cannot believe how beautiful it is. Finally, an IDE you can trust. I've never trusted in any Java IDE, they cause troubles more than they can solve.

I've installed NetBeans a few days a go, and it really got into me; the way code is organized, the features provided by the IDE, and more important is that it has a better performance than other IDEs.

You will appreciate the work done on NetBeans when start developing mobile applications, it is heaven, in short, this is one of the greatest additions to the life of every "Java lover".

• Irvin Owens, Jr. - OwensPerformance

  I've been ranting so long about NetBeans that I often forget to whom I have mentioned how cool it is. I don't think that I have blogged about it, but I might have somewhere before. With the 5.0 release I think that Sun has hit a new benchmark. Having looked at how easy it is to develop UIs in the new Visual Studio it is comforting to see a similar UI tool for Java. While there is nothing that a new creation tool can do to help make the JFileChooser any faster, developing your Swing UIs doesn't have to be awful.

It really isn't fair to compare C# to Java. The tools don't compare especially where the UI is concerned. But NetBeans makes the differences minimal. I like Java better because I tend to bounce between PCs and Macs, so Swing is my windowing toolkit of choice. I know there are probably all of 3 J2SE developers around and two of them are working for Oracle. But I think that is because using the GridBagLayout or the FlowLayout are pains. With this tool you don't have to think about that, it is purely drag-and-drop UI building. So you can focus on actually writing classes.

There are a bunch more features with this new release, but I think that probably the most critical is the new UI tool. It has much stronger support for Struts and other frameworks, and the integrated tomcat server seems easier to manage. I haven't seen many bugs in the application so I hope for a speedy release. If you are new to Java like I am, then this is definately the IDE for you. Eclipse may be the power user's tool of choice, but for a newbie NetBeans is awesome.

• Nigel Warren - Head of Research and Design for Net Caboodle

  The NetBeans Mobility Pack provides a real jump start for Java ME developers, by allowing developers to visually create user interfaces for mobile applications. Net Caboodle are delighted to be providing a NetBeans plugin for our Mobile Enterprise Gateway. We set out to make developing connected Java ME applications simple, and now by combining our tools with the NetBeans Mobility Pack it has never been easier and quicker to develop Java ME applications and connect them to your enterprise systems.
With the release of NetBeans 5.0 we can fully leverage the underlying IDE platform which means we can get on with the job of simplifying enterprise data access for mobile users rather than duplicate effort developing IDE components for our tool sets.

• Dick Wall - Producer, Java Posse

  "NetBeans has to win the prize for the biggest jumps forward that I've seen in recent development over the last year or so...It does appear that Sun is really starting to listen to feedback and change some of the things people were put off by in the past."

• Joe Slone - Chief Architect, 1SYNC

  As 1SYNC started to develop Web services, we were looking to increase developer efficiency and lower costs. Web services often have high maintenance fees, particularly if framework creation and writing are required. We evaluated the NetBeans IDE 4.1 and found that its tight integration with the Sun Java System Application Server, which is our common platform, and their excellent Web services support made it a very productive environment, both for Web services and for general J2EE development. Because 1SYNC's applications are developed in J2EE, this proved very beneficial.

• Bruno Steppuhn - President and CEO, ZenSoft Studios, Inc.

  When we were evaluating development platforms for mobile devices, we quickly determined that the combination of NetBeans Mobility Pack and J2ME was hands down the best solution. These technologies have the most sophisticated and cost-effective tools for mobile platform development. Plus, a wide range of devices are Java-technology enabled, so using Java language tools for mobile development makes perfect sense.

• Ryan Asleson and Nathaniel Schutta - From ntschutta

  ...All of our examples were written using NetBeans, Ryan on his Windows box, me on my Mac. For those of you that haven't tried NetBeans in a while, I highly recommend taking it for a spin. The 5.0 Beta is out - Ryan has been playing with it for quite a while and he gives it a big thumbs up.

• Will Hartung

  Well, I just downloaded and played a bit with it.

I haven't done much more.

But I must say...Matisse...is, just, simply, amazing.

Whenever I wanted to "dabble" with Swing, as soon as I had to play with a complicated form, not only did the wind fall from my sails, but the boat struck the reef and I noticed the lifeboats were missing as the water rushed in.

The whole layout thing just obliterated what drive I had.

Matisse though...just wow! It does exactly what I want, I think. I don't know what the layouts look like if the font size changes, or on a Mac, or whatever. I kinda of assume that the Matisse guys have thought of this problem and "deal with it".

But it beats the heck out of "null" or "absolute" positioning layouts, just the whole thing. Fields and labels simply snap into the "right" places.

Mind, it's always been about data entry like forms for me: labels, fields, several per row, some lining up vertically, some not. Every other layout thing I've seen has been basically a nightmare for these complicated layouts.

Matisse is fast to use, and did an excellent job right away. No futzing with it, no nudging, no guessing or anything.

For the hand carved Swing purists asking "what kind of code does it generate", I'll tell you this. I simply don't care. Not one iota. It doesn't matter. Black box. Little comments "Magic Happens Here".

This is such an enabler. Very exciting!

So, accolades to the NetBeans and JDesktop groups for pulling this out of their hat.

No, not everything is the GUI builder, there's a lot more to things than that. But, this kind of GUI builder that lets yahoo's like me pound out crappy data forms with minimal effort -- that's pretty neet stuff.

• Brahmanand Gannur

  NetBeans provides the complete environment, and right from the day 1 you will be productive on the tool.

It comes with all the J2EE features which makes it easy to develop the J2EE application. add to it teh new GUI development is nice feature.

• Ajay - IT Engineer

  What can I say about a masterpiece. It's simply "the best" Java IDE on Earth. With all the sophisticated tools made easy by NetBeans, anyone can learn Java easily. So thumbs up for NetBeans.

• David Gorin - Lead Systems Architect / CEO, Dark Horse Software Inc

  I have been a Java consultant since 1996 and I have always dreaded GUI development because the tools left it up to you to do alignment and beautification, especially in resizable windows. However, I must say that NetBeans has really outstripped everyone in this regard. I am very impressed, to the point where I am making it the standard for my subcontractors and my products. Please keep up the good work and know that you have fans here in Atlanta.

• Luca Cicale

  Me and my team have been using NetBeans since version 3.4, and we are very satisfied with this product because it has enhanced our productivity. The more we used it the more we have migrated all our software design to it. We had used a lot of different tools to produce our code (an editor, a CVS client, a profiler, compilers and so on) and now we have all of them together in one very easy-to-understand and simple-to-use environment. Over the years the team has changed several times and I have never had any difficulties to teach the new members how to use NetBeans, and a lot of people have become really productive in a few minutes.

• Alvin Fernandez - Sun Certified Java Programmer

  [NetBeans IDE]'s a great one-stop-studio for developing enterprise or standard desktop applications. What I like best is that it now executes faster than before.

• Nigel Warren - Head of Research and Design for Net Caboodle

  The NetBeans Mobility Pack provides a real jump start for Java ME developers, by allowing developers to visually create user interfaces for mobile applications. Net Caboodle are delighted to be providing a NetBeans plugin for our Mobile Enterprise Gateway. We set out to make developing connected Java ME applications simple, and now by combining our tools with the NetBeans Mobility Pack it has never been easier and quicker to develop Java ME applications and connect them to your enterprise systems.<br><br>

With the release of NetBeans 5.0 we can fully leverage the underlying IDE platform which means we can get on with the job of simplifying enterprise data access for mobile users rather than duplicate effort developing IDE components for our tool sets.

• William Beebe

  I've been living pretty solidly with NB5 since beta 2. I think I made the switch from Eclipse to NB without realizing it. I can't pin it on any one reason, but what helped tip me over to NB5 was it's superior Emacs key bindings in the editor. Another is that Matisse finally works for me. It hit a high level of stability (especially under the latest builds on SuSE Linux) and I suspect I also learned to really use it well by un-learning some habits acquired using other equivalent tools. Matisse and I grew towards one another.

I wish Eclipse and its supporters the best of luck. For me it's grown too big and complicated. I now realize the last good, fast version was probably 2.1.3. I think that's the sweet spot that NB5 has finally hit; fast and with useful features.

• Jochen Bedersdorfer - Senior Software Architect

  Congrats to the Netbeans team. I downloaded the NetBeans 5.0 RC yesterday evening and played around with it. It is significantly better integrated into Mac OS X than Eclipse and it is much faster to work with. Eclipse often will make iTunes skip without no obvious reason. Netbeans is behaving a lot better performance wise. Matisse is great! Try it. You will be surprised how good your panels will look.

• Mikael Gueck - server-side application developer

  I've been able to use the NetBeans beta to produce one GUI application into production use, which is one more than I would have done without it. It's like with VB developers, I have a job to do, and it doesn't matter to me what is good and what sucks, the only thing that matters is that I need to get this thing done in a day or two, or no deal. Matisse created this sales opportunity for me, a server-side programmer, by allowing me to do just that, and helped me put money in my pocket. Just what is wrong with that?

• Davide Pole

  I often use [NetBeans Developer Collaboration] in collaboration with Skype, and it's a really productive way to work! This kind of software reminds me we are in the 21th century ;)

• Steve Naidamast - Sr. Development Analyst, Credit Suisse - First Boston

  My question is; "How do you develop such great software and not get paid for it?" I have tried NetBeans and am completely impressed with its capabilities. Once version 5.0 is out of beta I am looking forward to working with it again now that it will have a GUI builder as part of the package.

• JC Lee

  Matisse is an amazing stuff introduced in NetBeans 5 to give Java developers a brand new experience to build GUIs with FUN & EXCITEMENT! For me, it's already an addiction trying to give anything I developed a GUI, or otherwise just try to find a minute to build a test form with Matisse and remove it, then build another one and remove..., it's just fun and enjoyable, a long awaited feeling on building Java rich client apps. Cool! If need one word for it...

• Jean Madson

  When I was searching for an alternative to Delphi 3, its language, its facilities built into its powerful IDE, and its cost effective price, I came across NetBeans 3.8, and fell in love at first sight. It did all I needed - either in the server or the client, and even for mobile development. What more would I want to do? And if I had some doubts about the tool's evolution, after Charlie Hunt's presentation on NetBeans 5.0, there's no doubt anymore.

To paraphrase the Python motto, NetBeans comes with batteries included. NetBeans rocks! Download-Install-Use-it!!!

• Jim Caprioli - Software Engineer

  NetBeans 5.0 beta

Download + installation went OK. First Impression? Startup time is much faster. Look and feel of the IDE is exactly the same, but L&F had some drastic changes from 3.6 -> 4.0. I opened a 4.0 project in 5.0 beta and it ran superb. All settings were recovered. Cool! I'll stay with NetBeans for a while.

• Arthit Suriyawongkul

  The Profiler just got a face-lifting! so beautiful! ;)

The Mobility Pack (for Java ME) is very powerful as well, btw.

• Surya De

  NetBeans is my IDE of choice simply cause I have worked with it most and the improvements in the Beta of 5.0 are quite staggering. I think NetBeans needs to me able to deal with JSPs and autocomplete better, have features for XML and definitely as one poster already pointed out, support uml really well. Also a nice plug-in for Java 3D would be great. There was a project at NetBeans that was based on scenegraphs and such...and I think it would be great if it got completed.

• Paris Apostolopoulos

  I agree with those indicating that Netbeans is a better integrated IDE as a whole.Being a JBuilder user for 3 now, I see NetBeans and especially Matisse as the "holy grail" for fast and flexible GUI design, for us Java developers.

Its OK you need time to master Swing, you can built some nice screens though is not a fast process. Write code write code be careful with the nested panels the layouts etc.

Matisse FOR the first time in such an IDE lets you design complicated screens in minutes! The designer is smart enough to provide GUI anchors so the components can be grouped and resized... just a "right" click away!

• Erik Lindahl - Consultant - IT-Arkitekterna

  I've been trying for two days to get a J2EE-sample to run on JBoss. I've tried MyEclipse and JBoss Eclipse IDE and tried to follow their tutorials, but always their was some sort of problem; incompatible tools, wrong version of JDK etc. I was almost giving up when I came across your tutorial with NetBeans. Super! You made my day! At last I'm up and running. And the NetBeans IDE is super for me as a J2EE-rookie with everything set up so I can see exactly what's going on behind the scenes.

Now I'm ready to try out the various J2EE unit testing tools, which is my current assignment as a consultant at the Swedish tax authorities.

• Zaba Zabov

  I love NetBeans! NetBeans is the best IDE for beginners, like me (I have tried Eclipse but it was very slow and unstable). I love it because it is a simple, but powerful IDE. It is very beautiful (instead of those ugly Eclipse icons :), easy to install, easy to configure, easy to use. Thanks for this great IDE!

• Andrew Law - J2EE Architect and Developer, Capgemini UK PLC

  I've been using Matisse for a few weeks now and it does everything I ask of it and more. I've been nothing but impressed. And that's with me knowing very little about Swing. In a nutshell, I'm impressed. VERY impressed.

• Julien Ponge - PhD Student, Assistant

  Part of my job is to teach at a French engineering school, and I have decided that my students will do their J2EE duties with Netbeans. Here are some reasons why:

* The Netbeans + Sun Application Server bundle: There is a full-stack J2EE server integrated with the IDE out of the box.
* Running a webapp is as simple as pressing the start button. It does everything from starting the server, reloading the webapp, launching a web browser at the right URL and so on.
* Students don't have to deal with web.xml, or creating the files in the right place.
* NetBeans uses Ant, meaning that the project can be used outside of Netbeans, too.
* There is an embedded database (PointBase), which is very useful for instance when Oracle instances are down due to other lab courses.
* The editors are reasonably good, and the code completion in Java classes and JSPs is always helpful to students.
* The JSTL support is very good, there is no reason for teaching plain-old and ugly JSPs anymore.

If you have to teach J2EE as well, I strongly recommend Netbeans. Netbeans team: Well done and keep up the good work, you've managed to change my mind on your IDE so much that I do enjoy using it for J2EE.

• Vincent Bellet - developer

  We switched one week ago! All our development (wingz/consulting) is now done with NetBeans 5.0 beta 2 which is quite stable (after today on RC1 for sure.) The main reasons for our switch are:
Matisse for consulting development! It really is amazing. In consulting with some of our clients it's easier to move UI components in front of them and without coding a gridbaglayout.
Netbean 5 look and feel: NetBeans has all necessary killer features for an IDE (refactoring, profiler etc.)
And last, there are several wizards and third party add-ons (J2ME, etc.) that you only find on NetBeans.
It's free and it's supported by a company! After one week the result is great. Some UI bugs but nothing serious. So for now we are happy with that move.

• Jean Madson

  When I was searching for an alternative to Delphi 3 (the language, the IDE features, and the cost-effective price), I came across NetBeans 3.8, it was love at the first sight. It did all I needed, for servers as well as clients, and even for mobile development. What more could I want? After Charlie Huntch's presentation of NetBeans 5, all my doubts were gone. OK, I have been using Eclipe (don't tell anybody, please), with all its needs of configuration, hard-coded Ant scripts, XML configuration files, plugins to download and install to be ready to run, and so on. I could see the guys in my workplace, they were very suprised after Huntch's lecture - one even said he had to review his concepts!
Paraphrasing the Python motto, "NetBeans comes with batteries included."
NetBeans rocks! Download - Install - Use it!!!

• Cody Rester - Information Technology major

  I'm an Information Technology major in college, and I took a Java programming class last semester, and for our IDE, we used jGRASP. This semester, however, in my advanced Java class, our professor is switching us to a new IDE, Eclipse. Well, after spending an hour trying to get Eclipse let me start writing code, I gave up. Now, I'm not one to be put off by applications or GUI interfaces, as I have mastered Photoshop, and have spent a lot of time in Linux.

I found NetBeans, and installed it, and I was up and running with a working test application in about a minute. I've only just begun to play around with NetBeans, but I know it's my IDE of choice frmo now on. An IDE should work with you, not against you, and NetBeans is perfect for my programming challenges.

• Jean Madson

  Very good presentation on NetBeans 5.0 at Caixa Econômica Federal! I can make jokes with my friends who used to say NetBeans is not a good tool and that Eclipse is the better choice. One of those friends said to me: 'OK .... Now I need to re-evaluate my position ... (about Java IDEs).

• Bruno Vernay

  The more I use NetBeans, the more I like it.

• Jan Michael Soan

  I've been a fan of Netbeans since its first release, when it became a Forte for Java and evolved back again as Netbeans. I've seen Netbeans progress, I've seen Netbeans struggle in its UI responses there are lot's of things that makes up Netbeans. For me its a super IDE in a package with all the tools you need you'll never be disappointed from GUI drag and drop , for supporting different Web Containers and for supporting Struts and EJB this IDE really rocks.

For a short while I was impressed on eclipse specially in its VEP plugin and lots of free plugins which makes up my J2EE needs but when I saw Netbeans 4.1 I was really excited on its features so what I did was to give it a shot and I was happy on how Netbeans evolved, Until now I'm using and unzipping every release of this super IDE. With the release of Netbeans 5.0 its really a super winner in the making. I wish Netbeans every success and hopefully you can have an editor which will let the user view a jsp or an html. More power to Netbeans.

• Flavio R. Bianchi

  4.1 is the most recent release of NetBeans, as many comment a lot of improvements of NetBeans I decided to make my evaluation of it. I was very impressed with the start speed of the tools, so fast as Eclipse, the tool I'm alread accustomed to use. The tool appearance is getting better each release, as many features too. The best feature of NetBeans is the update system, much better than anyone.

• Adan Walker - Independent Software Consultant

  NetBeans 5 Beta: Initial Thoughts

I downloaded the new Beta. The menu is in the right place now on OS X (in 4.1 you put it there but the tools menu misbehaved) and seems to work correctly. The source code window looks a lot better than I remember, guess they anti-alias now.

The real pleasant surprise is the preferences (options) dialog. You no longer have to dig through a ton of tree items to find the place to change the default font, or key-bindings. The old options dialog is still available for masochists. Switching back and forth between the two caused an extra dialog to show up that would not go away. That seems to have corrupted my preferences. Trashed the beta and unzipped the archive again to get a fresh copy. Problem solved. Yeah, it's a Beta.

The java suggestions feature is great. Missed it when I switch from Eclipse. The new code completion is a lot faster. There are new refactoring commands (I haven't tried yet). Plus a lot of stuff I have not tried yet.
GUI Editing

I know I've panned WYSIWYG editing in the past, but as my workload has shifted from J2EE apps with 50+ screens to smaller apps with more unique GUI demands, I have come to do more WYSIWYG. The first thing I noticed in the GUI builder is that I can now use the "delete-key-which-is-actually-a-backspace-key" on my mac USB keyboard when doing in-place editing without constant beep-and-ask-to-delete action. This in itself is worth a 50 meg download to me. Then, there is Matisse...

The new GUI Editor, Matisee, is cool. It works kinda like the Apple Interface Builder, it that small guidelines appear to let you know you're locking the component to something. In Interface Builder, I'd have to resort using the inspector to get things to resize correctly, not so with Matisee. In NetBeans, you just drag the end of the component until you see the guideline. No need to switch between the components and GridBag customize dialog. You can kiss nested JPanels goodbye.

Unfortunately, moving from GridBag to "Free Design" (GroupLayout) is not always smooth. The first dialog I tried to port was very complex and whenever I tried to move anything, I'd get a failed assertion and an exception (I'm an idiot, I didn't copy them). So I tried a second, more simple, dialog without problems. So going back to first dialog, I experimented until I was able to get it to work. My theory is that the old combo-boxes had no model, and newly added combos have a default model.

After the first hiccups, designing with Matisee is much faster.

Summary: It's a beta and still rough around the edges. Matisse is cool. Can't wait for the full release.

• Matt Giacomini

  This new release looks great! I like Eclipse, but lately have found myself using NetBeans more and more. Seem like a more complete package for JEE developement. I was using a group of plug-ins in Eclipse to give me what Netbeans gives me out of the box.

• Shiro Nanami

  I personally Like NetBeans more than Eclipse, although I've used Eclipse frequently as of this late. I just hope NetBeans can have a lite package where you can plug in various extensions to it to suit your need later on.

• Dee

  I prefer Netbeans to Eclipse. The IDE layout and usage is quite intuitive as compared to Eclipse. Plus GUI development is a snap since Netbeans has a drag and drop facility for this ala VB. In eclipse one has to hand code GUI stuff.

• Andy Roberts

  I use mainly Ecplise but I recently downloaded Netbeans 4.1 whilst it was in Beta and I thought it looked very decent indeed. I'll probably start my next project in NetBeans to fully experience the program so I can make an informed decision as to which IDE supports my needs the best. I think it's an excellent example of how powerful Swing is, and I never found it a hog with memory (especially relative to other fully featured IDEs)

One thing that caught my eye was the NetBeans Profiler. Looks very interesting and can't wait to give it a whirl.

• Sriram Alv

  I have been following NetBeans from 4.0 and NetBeans has come a long way.
Kudos for NetBeans team to make is as one of the best ide for J2EE development.

Though my company has licensed for WebSphere I prefer NetBeans and use only NetBeans.

• Clemens Eisserer

  I can just speak about Eclipse/Swt-GTK/GTK2.6 but this NetBeans-Beta really outperforms Eclipse.

It makes almost no feelable difference wether I run it on the OpenGL or the X11 pipeline - when using the X11 pipeline I even get the gray-rect fix.
Everything snaps smooth, tabbing between editors, resizing "views", dragging windows over netbean's main-window and most important the main-menu and the context-menus appear with almost no delay whereas Eclipse always seems to take a few moments to show menus and when they disappear the user is able to see gray rects when need to be redrawn (also visible).

• Cedric Crowe

  There are some really nice features in the latest release:

Some of my favourites are:
-Surround with try/catch!!!
-Matisse editor (still very fragile though, getting invalid/incosistent state, and other exceptions and assertion errors - serious work needed)
-New options dialog (although code-completion delay does not appear to be in the modern view, and the first time I load the dialog I get a "cannot have negative value" message).
-JBoss support (useful for local development, but will use SJAS for Solaris server deployment).
-Color and keyboard shortcut themes

There are also some VERY nice keyboard shortcuts which don't seem to be well documented/obvious:
-ctrl+tab (switching between recent documents - very nice)
-alt+shift+s (select current block (repeatable), just like Eclipse).

BTW nice to see many of the features in my previous wishlist:
have been implemented!

Overall you guys have done an excellent job (pending bug fixes of course).

• Matt Giacomini

  One of the reason I use NetBeans over Eclipse is that NetBeans focuses on Java development, where as Eclipse is more of a generic development IDE supporting C/C++, Java, Actionscript, etc........

IMO I think that NetBeans is a better IDE for *Java* development, with more built in support for more aspects of JEE development then Eclipse. I would like to see the NetBeans developers continue to focus on Java, and carve a strong nitch for NetBeans a complete JEE development platform.

• Steve Zara

  I usually don't see any explanation of what is wrong with NetBeans, apart from it not being Eclipse. I occasionally try both, but keep coming back to NetBeans. But no matter what I think personally, the evidence from surveys of developers seems to suggest that both NetBeans AND Eclipse have a lot of momentum at the moment, and both are widely used.

This is healthy. I would have thought that the early adoption of, for example, Java 5.0 support by other IDEs helped put the pressure on Eclipse to eventually match this, and Eclipse's strong refactoring encouraged similar tools in NetBeans.

What I would like to see is faster work on a common IDE plug-in standard. Developers should be able to many plugins on a range of IDEs.

• Athanassios Siaperas

  I just wanted to say thank you for granting the people with such an excellent software in such an open way. I am surprised and grateful for finding on the open software a product serving my needs so satisfactorily. I especially enjoyed using the GUI builder.

• Chris Cousins - Algorithm team lead, Research Machines Plc, UK

  I never sent an email to NetBeans before but I just had to say how much your Matisse stuff rocks. I develop medium size GUIs and I don't have time to learn how to use a text area in a scrollpane and get it the right size and all that. Anyway the free layout you've developed is just great!

• Markus Svensson

  Just wanted to say that the overall responsiveness of Netbeans has come a long way since this [NetCAT] program started. This RC build feels really snappy. Well done!

• Vano Beridze - Software Developer, Silk Road Group S.A.

  Version 5.0 beta is the first release I tested the CVS support. I saw a demo and the first thought that came to my mind was, "it's deadly simple to use CVS with my projects". I must say it was really intuitive and fast process.

• Bryan E. Boone

  I really like the browsing during a CVS checkout. I think this is a great improvement. Good job!

• JC Lee

  "I'm in a small developer team in Tianjin, China, and the only one programming in Java, of course with NetBeans (now on daily build of nb51). I started using NetBeans in with version 3.x and stuck to it though having tried other tools like JDeveloper, Eclipse etc., but the comparison was obvious to tell that NetBeans was most suitable to my needs when it came to version 4.x. And the new NB5 is just amazing and outstanding in many fields that NetBeans team have introduced to us, salute to you! Especially Matisse which is my favorite, makes Java developing more like a kind of enjoyment! Just hope you guys keep going while I will keep refreshing netbeans's download page, haha!

• From NB-Users

  I've been able to use the NetBeans beta to produce one GUI application into production use, which is one more than I would have done without it. It's like with VB developers, I have a job to do, and it doesn't matter to me what is good and what sucks, the only thing that matters is that I need to get this thing done in a day or two, or no deal. Matisse created this sales opportunity for me, a server-side programmer, by allowing me to do just that, and helped me put money in my pocket. Just what is wrong with that?

• Pankaj Patel

  I am a Software Engineer having completed engineering in IT. Now I am developing web-based applications using JSP, servlets, JavaBeans. For managing all these I am using NetBeans 5.0. This is the best IDE that I have ever seen.

• Jochen Bedersdorfer

  Congrats to the Netbeans team. I downloaded the NetBeans 5.0 RC yesterday evening and played with it. It is significantly better integrated into Mac OS X than Eclipse and it is much faster to work with. Eclipse often will make iTunes skip without no obvious reason. Netbeans is behaving a lot better performance wise. Matisse is great! Try it. You will be surprised how good your panels will look.

• Markus Svensson

  I never ever got the old CVS to work, and used Eclipse for all CVS activities until the new CVS arrived. As you all understand, I'm not too versed in the advanced features of CVS, so for me the-simple-to-use new version is far better than the old one.

• Daniel Duarte Mendes

  Let's show the other people, especially the Eclipse people, what NetBeans is all about, a great innovative community, Community being the keyword.

• James C. McPherson

  Not only is startup and teardown _much_ faster than previously, but when I installed the latest Mustang build and re-tried.... wow! Speed Daemons! Well done to the NetBeans team.

• Leroy Kaboi - college tutor

  I'm a developer / college tutor from Nairobi, Kenya, Africa. I have been using NetBeans since version 3.6. Netbeans rocks, I have tried eclipse, Jbuilder etc. Nothing compares to NetBeans especially since version 4.0. I'm starting a development company here in Kenya and I plan to use Netbeans and the netbeans platform for development.
Keep up the good work.

• Ajay Bachchas

  What can I say about a masterpiece. It's simply "the best" Java IDE on the earth. With all the sophisticated tools made easy by NetBeans, anyone can learn Java easily. So thumbs up for NetBeans.