Netbeans 6.0

Netbeans 6.0 is currently in beta. The netbeans.org site says that release is scheduled for next month. There are already some very nice tutorials and documentation up for this new version of netbeans.
 
I'm already extremely pleased with netbeans. Most of the projects I play with are desktop apps, and I don't think any java IDE I've ever used comes remotely close to netbeans in developing swing apps for the desktop. For evidence I'd like to point out a couple screen casts. This one is and introduction to netbeans 6.0 and this one does a great job of showing the gui builder capabilities.
 
Netbeans is just not a Java IDE - it can also handle c/c++ and ruby. There may be commercial plugins for other languages, but everything I've mentioned thus far is free and open. That is, in my mind, part of what propels this product past visual studio. It has some rather incredible features - and all of it is free and will run on multiple platforms. MS does give away free versions of the visual studio product, but they are severely limited in their feature set. Most of the most desirable features cost money. And then the product is limited to running on Windows. I think that we will see more and more useful plugins for Netbeans and it will continue to be a great tool for the developer.

heh

[Bill Dog]

And then the product is limited to running on Windows.

Heh, and cars are limited to running on gas. Which you just cannot find anywhere! ;-)

Re:

[stoolpigeon]

I've got a couple projects at work right now that are both centered around duplicating an existing app because that app only runs on windows and we have a rapidly increasing number of mac users. we don't have many linux users at all - but they benefit from this kind of thing too.
 
So you are still correct, but I think that increasingly - windows only will not be acceptable for many organizations.

Re:

[Bill Dog]

Sounds like bad management decisions. Having a heterogenous computing environment is cost-ineffective for a business. And now even more wasted money to duplicate effort, when the Windows app could probably be run in VM's on the Macs.

Re:

[stoolpigeon]

Well - we don't have the central control to force the issue. These systems support over 26,000 full time staff in more countries than McDonalds. And the nice thing is it's not hard to write apps that take multiple operating systems into account. Just need to plan ahead.