NetBeans — My favorite Java / J2EE development environment, har just been released in version 5.0, much have changed since the 3.x, 4.x versions and I warmly recommend any Java developer to download and discover it’s open source glory, especially those who last tried it years ago.
I went from NetBeans 3.1 to JBuilder Enterprise and directly back to NetBeans 3.6 again, and since I haven’t really looked at the commercial IDE’s as an option for my own projects. I have also used Eclipse and IBM’s Websphere Studio Developer (which is based on Eclipse codebase), and although they are fine products, they don’t really do it for me, since I have quite big focus on Java Web Development, and Eclipse needs commercial third party plugins (MyEclipse) to do that well at the moment.

NetBeans IDE 5.0 introduces comprehensive support for developing IDE modules and rich client applications based on the NetBeans platform, the new intuitive GUI builder Matisse, new and redesigned CVS support, Sun Application Server 8.2, Weblogic9 and JBoss 4 support, and a lot of editor enhancements.

Here are some of the cool features in this release:

• Developing NetBeans Modules
• Matisse GUI Builder
• Servers
• Web Frameworks
• Web Services
• Editor Enhancements
• Code Completion
• Refactoring
• Version Control
• Debugging
• Other Usability Improvements
• New NetBeans Add-on Packs

• NetBeans 5.0 Release Info

Michael Urban wrote “One of the biggest frustrations with GUI design in Java is struggling with layout managers to get complex forms to look good. However, that will all soon be a thing of the past. ”

“…Think he is using absolute positioning? He’s not. That’s a new feature called Matisse. What is so magic about it? Matisse lets you design your form as if you were using absolute positioning. You simply drag your components to where you want them and set them to the size you want by dragging. NetBeans takes care of figuring out what layout managers are needed, and of writing all of the code for you to make your form look the way you design it using ‘Drag, drop, and stretch’…”

See example Flash demo and get more info on the Matisse GUI Designer at Javalobby at the link below.

* Coming Soon: Magic in NetBeans Form Designer. | Javalobby.org

Also see:
* Project Matisse is coming! | Netbeans.org