Just like Roumen posted, the IDE wars are at such pace that I was offered two free extra months using IntelliJ IDEA.
This works fine for me as I enjoy IntelliJ IDEA more than I have ever enjoyed an IDE before, but my interest in NetBeans requires handling. I pointed Safari to the NetBeans page, and found the Real Stories page.
To my disappointment, the page seems to be filled with people talking about how they prefer NetBeans over Eclipse, the IBM open-source competitor, instead of pointing out what they found as advantages (Except for mentioning Ant here and there).
What I lacked most was comparison to IntelliJ IDEA, which I deem the best yet, without doubt when considering Mac OS X development.
For example, one of the most talked about features in the new NetBeans is the Matisse GUI Builder. For a long time now I praised IntelliJ’s UI Editor to anyone who would just claim that .NET’s superiority is in the ease of GUI development. IntelliJ’s UI editor was and still is revolutionary, in my humble opinion.
There is no other choice for me but to download NetBeans 5 beta 2 myself, and compare it to IntelliJ IDEA. Fortunately, I could do that easily now that I have two months license extension.
I just hope that after posting this, I didn’t cancel that offer completely.
Liked Chaotic Java? It's free! But maybe you can
January 11th, 2006 at 2:27 am
If you want to see Matisse in action, take a look at this demo:
http://www.netbeans.org/files/documents/4/475/matisse.html
I talk about some other interesting features in this presentation:
http://www.javalobby.org/eps/netbeans5
As for the comparison of IDE features, Eclipse is our main competitor and that’s the reason why Eclipse is discussed on this page. We have a more friendly relationship with the guys from IDEA.
That said, I can provide you with some comparison – which features are think are superior in NetBeans compared to IDEA:
1. Matisse – the new GUI builder – I think this is one of the best, if not the best GUI designers for Java out there. The main reason is it’s ease of use – it is really simple to design professional forms which look good on every platform with every look and feel. Created forms retain all the advantages such as that they can be localized and are resizable, although you design the forms in a free fashion.
2. Developer collaboration – provides a chat feature you can use inside of the IDE. It allows you to work with your remote colleagues on your project. You can share and edit files and do some powerfull stuff like building a remote project. See: http://collab.netbeans.org, a flash demo is also available there.
3. Profiler – it’s an easy to use tool to measure performance – lets you find wasted CPU cycles and shows your usage of memory (you can also use it do detect memory leaks). It works out of box with JDK 1.5.0_04 or better and there is minimum performance overhead when measuring the application, because you can measure selected parts of code.
4. J2ME – mobility pack. This is another add-on to NetBeans you can use to build applications for mobile phones. It has a visual editor and MIDP applications can be integrated with web applications or web services.
5. J2EE – enterprise development. NetBeans contains a rich set of features for developing enterprise java beans, working with JSPs, XML, JSF, Struts, Servlets, web services and similar technologies.
6. NetBeans platform – you can use the NetBeans platform to build applications on top of it and reuse code written by NetBeans engineers. This can save you a lot of time and NetBeans can also help you with marketing your application.
7. Opensource – this is not e feature, but it’s important to mention that NetBeans is a no cost IDE, with a growing and thriving community, which is fun to be involved in. It helps you solve your issues via the nbusers@netbeans.org mailing list. The community is very open and developers listen to suggestions which people write on the mailing list.
… I could go on. Let me know in which area you are interested and I can provide you with more information.
I would also like to acknowledge that IDEA has a better and smarter java editor. NetBeans team is working on improving this in next releases.
January 11th, 2006 at 9:11 am
Of course, our offer still valid.
January 14th, 2006 at 8:02 am
Just to be fair, a response on Roumen’s points:
1. Matisse – Roumen is correct, Matisse is the easiest to use. JetBrains are probably going to improve IDEA’s GUI builder for the next version.
2. Developer collaboration – I have not tried NetBeans’ full collaboration features, but there is an existing free plugin for IDEA called IDETalk which allows chatting and some other network features (you can find a great list of plugins at http://plugins.intellij.net/plugins/). The next version of IDEA is largely focused on networked collaboration.
3. Profiler – NetBeans has a free profiler, but IDEA has several commercial plugins, including the excellent YourKit profiler plugin (http://www.yourkit.com/) which is very nicely integrated into IDEA. NetBeans’ only edge here is being free.
4. J2ME – NetBeans’ support here is currently the most complete, though IDEA does have good support and will improve in the next version.
5. J2EE – I seriously don’t think NetBeans can claim any sort of superiority here.. IDEA’s J2EE support is excellent, and far superior in the coding of JSP, XML, HTML, JavaScript, CSS. IDEA also has free plugins for Struts, Spring, and web services.
6. NetBeans platform – IDEA is not an application platform, so no contest here. IDEA does have an OpenAPI for plugins, including a plugin development kit, but it is not a generic application platform and never will be.
7. Opensource – Roumen incorrectly links being open source with community and support. In fact, IDEA has one of the best communities of any software product, especially the innovative Early Access Program which lets users help drive future versions of IDEA. JetBrains has also recently won the Software Development Magazine’s Reader’s Choice Award for best technical support, and their support is available to anyone who uses IDEA, even evaluators. Everyone knows that finding the answers to your questions within an open source community can sometimes take a long time and a lot of research. The only real advantage NetBeans has by being open source is price and the ability to view/modify the source yourself.
January 14th, 2006 at 8:59 am
Roumen:
I’ve just seen the collaboration‘s flash, and it looked extremely nice!
Rob:
I have never seen IDETalk in action, and I will set it as my next goal. However, there is a project I am about to start which requires heavy collaboration and since collaboration, and NetBeans, are completely free, it appeals to me as the IDE of choice there.
About Profiler: What plugin you think I should look into to compare NetBeans’ Profiler against?
January 14th, 2006 at 10:10 am
Re: J2EE – I have to check your J2EE stuff out! When will you have EJB3 support? We have some experimental builds which do that already.
Re: Opensource – have you ever been a member of an opensource community, such as NetBeans? You might be surprised how the community helps you out. Plus the spirit of sharing code and contributions is just nice
January 14th, 2006 at 8:10 pm
I took a look at the demos of J2EE support in IDEA … it looks good… I like the CSS and JavaScript editors. Any idea when will IDEA 6 be out?
January 17th, 2006 at 5:19 am
Avah, I personally do not have a lot of experience with profiler IDE plugins, but many people at JetBrains recommend YourKit.
Roumen: Just to clear things up, I’m no longer working for JetBrains, but I still like to talk about IDEA, so while I still support it, I don’t have all the most recent information anymore. Anyway, EJB3 is scheduled for version 6, I believe. I do not know when 6 will come out, but usually it is about somewhere around 12 months from the beginning of the EAP. The EAP for 6 starts in a couple of weeks, I’ve heard. I wouldn’t be surprised if JetBrains tries to get 6 out before Christmas next year, but if it takes longer, they may try to get it out before Java One 2007. Honestly though, I could be completely wrong.
Regarding open source and community, I have been involved to a small extent in the JUnit community (not as a contributor though) several years ago. I even made a clone called VBAUnit, which is no longer under development. I’ve also been passively involved to some extent with Ruby. I’ve never been heavily involved in any project, but I’m aware of what the communities are like. I could toss the question back at you, Have you ever been involved in IDEA’s EAP community?
The EAP community shares a remarkable similarity to successful open-source communities, except that contributions come in the form of feature requests and bug reports instead of actual code. JetBrains was somehow able to cultivate a strong community by paying attention to what people asked for and really getting people involved in the process of developing IDEA. EAP members are able to use the latest development builds for free, and when you see a feature you requested get magically implemented in a matter of days, it can really be an exciting thing. I would say that IDEA’s community is a huge factor in why IDEA is such a great product. Also, the community forums are very lively and helpful for anyone who participates. If anyone is interested, you can find out more at http://intellij.net/. It’s open to anyone, and the EAP for version 6 should start in a few weeks.
January 17th, 2006 at 9:10 am
I see! Btw, there is a Yourkit plug-in for NetBeans as well
No, I have never been involved in IDEA’s EAP… and I don’t know if I would be accepted well in there. Do you think it’s a good idea for me to join, given I work on NetBeans? Note that Alex Tkachman calls current situation an IDE war: http://www.javalobby.org/java/forums/t61626.html
At any case I would like to have that experience. I think that IDEA is a very good IDE and IDEA’s editor is awesome. But as I mentioned above, NetBeans already has now some features which I find superior or do not exists in IDEA.
Why I was asking about EJB3 – I recently created my first Java EE 5 application with NetBeans and Glassfish – it already starts to work. I am nicely surprised how Java EE 5 is simplier, because I worked on one bigger Java EE application approximately 4 years ago and the project failed. But at that time we had no tools to do that (the commercial ones were expensive).
January 17th, 2006 at 10:35 am
Roumen!
Actually I borrowed wording “IDE Wars” from Avah. My own understanding of that is very simple – two big corporations and their partners involve huge development and marketing resources to provide good free IDEs. As of today Eclipse is much more popular but NetBeans also progressing really well. IntelliJ IDEA is still to be much more productive then any of them but IntelliJ IDEA is commercial product. I am sure if JetBrains give it for free IntelliJ will immidiately become IDE of choice for everybody. At least as of today. But we have to pay our bills. So there is no actual war but there is very strong competition between huge resources and small but very effective team, which invent new ways to increase productivity every new release and then you guys just need to reproduce these features
. OK, for this discussion it doesn’t matter who invented what.
About our EAP. There are no any restrictions for participation except correct tone of discussion. I am not sure it will be interesting for you if you don’t use IntelliJ IDEA but it is up to you. Community is open for everybody. If you will start to use IntelliJ IDEA and find that it is best Java IDE it would be good for us
We will make you great job offer 
BTW, I will travel to Prague tonight and stay till Friday. Drop me an email if you would like to meet for beer or two.
Avah!
I think for you it may be very interesting to join our EAP. I really recommend.
January 17th, 2006 at 10:36 am
Roumen,
Take a look at what I wrote about Java EE 5. It might half-assed, as I didn’t really Try Java EE 5 (and I hate to review something without trying it), but that’s why it’s called “thoughts about”
Regardless, I’d appreciate your thoughts about it as well.
At any case, I do hope NetBeans provide some boost needed for Java EE development, even though I’d also like to see a Tapestry plugin or a Cayenne plugin as well.
I’ll download a nightly build sometime soon (probably after I get some time… I still have Profiler on queue… ) and give it a try using NetBeans.
January 17th, 2006 at 10:46 am
Avah, I actually reacted on Rob’s comments about J2EE… it doesn’t really matter, it’s rather a bit of teasing
Alex, let’s go for beer!
January 17th, 2006 at 10:50 am
Roumen, could you drop me private email w/ phone number I can call you tonight.
January 17th, 2006 at 10:55 am
Sent.
January 17th, 2006 at 10:57 am
Alex,
I already joined the EAP a couple of weeks ago, and am eager to see when IDEA 6.0 EAP’s is out.
Wish I could join you guys for the beer. Or a Becherovka (am I spelling it right?
)
January 17th, 2006 at 11:00 am
Roumen,
I realise you commented on
AlexRob’s comment, but what you said reminded me of what I had in mind about the new EJB and JSP-JSF, and decided to post about it.Edit: Just noticed that I mistakenly wrote Alex instead of Rob. Sorry!
January 17th, 2006 at 11:00 am
Ahav,
where are you located? It will be my pleasure to meet when/if I travel around.
January 17th, 2006 at 11:17 am
Alex,
I live in Israel, but I travel a lot to England to be with my fiance.
January 17th, 2006 at 11:26 am
Wow!
I am traveling to Israel at least twice per year. My wife is Israelian citizen and myself is Hebrew. See you on early May then.
January 17th, 2006 at 11:37 am
Alex,
That would be great! We’ll keep in contact then, and you can always mail me at avah [at] crazyredpanda [dot] com.
See you in May!
January 17th, 2006 at 8:40 pm
Avah, sorry for using your comments like this, I hope you don’t mind.
Roumen, I am 100% sure that you would feel very welcome in the EAP community. You are open-minded and polite and full of ideas, people would certainly appreciate any comments or questions you have. I think the only thing you would have to worry about is whether Sun would look down on it. But if you pretend like you’re doing espionage on IDEA, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind.
January 17th, 2006 at 8:44 pm
Rob, it’s more than fine. As we say, “beyti beytecha”. My blog is your blog, and so on and so forth. Besides, it’s always exciting to get another comment on the blog
Now it’s only waiting a few weeks, as Alex said, for Demetra’s EAP to come out..
January 17th, 2006 at 9:38 pm
Here’s another comment from me for your excitement. The IDEA espionage plan could work
January 17th, 2006 at 9:43 pm
Yay!
Now the question is, wheher Roumen’s boss is reading this blog as well… [TAM-TAM-TAAAM]…
Sorry, had to be silly for a bit. AND it’s late.
January 17th, 2006 at 9:58 pm
That I will figure out tomorrow – if my Sun badge stops to work I know why!
January 17th, 2006 at 11:15 pm
Btw, you spelled Becherovka correct.
January 17th, 2006 at 11:20 pm
Oh, great!
I haven’t had that drink in years…
January 18th, 2006 at 11:27 pm
Roumen,
Are you joining Alex and coming in May? If you will I’ll buy you all a round (can’t resist a Round, can you?)
January 19th, 2006 at 12:58 am
I might try to organize a NetBeans day in Israel
Unfortunately I don’t think it will work, but you can stop in Prague 
August 20th, 2009 at 11:58 pm
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