There is nothing like an IDE debate to stir passionate points of view in the Java world, so the Java User Group(JUG) in Cologne, Germany set out to gather a representative panel composed from each leading provider in this space, with a non-aggression pact incorporated into the mix. The event:

The Java IDE Who-Is-Who in Cologne! The first time in history the four leading Java IDEs are joining one single session. Participants JetBrains Maxim Shafirov (JetBrains) - Responsible for IntelliJ IDEA (St. Petersburg) Mike Aizatsky (JetBrains) - Responsible for Web Development IntelliJ IDEA (St. Petersburg) Ann Oreshnikova (JetBrains) - Marketing Director JetBrains (St. Petersburg) NetBeans Roman Strobl (Sun Microsystems) - NetBeans Evangelist (Prague) Eclipse Wayne Beaton (Eclipse Foundation) - Eclipse Evangelist (Canada) Oracle Frank Nimphius (Oracle) - Principal Product Manager Oracle/JDeveloper

The review from Frank Nimphius at Oracle:

There is no winner of yesterday’s event as we all agreed on a non-aggression pact. We’ve been given 30 minutes each - after pizza an beer - to present and show demos, which reminded me a bit to speed dating. However, it was quite challenging to prepare for the event, especially because all IDEs that send their representative (JDeveloper, Eclipse, NetBean and IntelliJ) have more to sell than what fits into 30 minutes Just from what i summarize, I think it becomes clear how the 4 tools position themselves and which audience they attempt to attract. The event concluded with a one hour discussion panel around Open JDK and the value that open source and custom VM implementation bring to Java and how IDE vendors are planning to support them.

The Event http://jugcologne.org/?p=89 The Build-Up http://blogs.jetbrains.com/idea/ http://thepeninsulasedge.com/blog/2007/06/25/ide-shootout-with-netbeans-oracle-eclipse-and-jetbrains-july-3rd-2007/ http://groundside.com/blog/DuncanMills.php?title=ide_shootout_in_cologne&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1 http://www.netbeans.org/community/articles/jugcologne-shootout.html http://blogs.sun.com/roumen/entry/ide_shootout_first_of_it http://dev.eclipse.org/blogs/wayne/2007/06/27/on-the-road-again/ The Review from Frank Nimphius at Oracle http://thepeninsulasedge.com/frank_nimphius/2007/07/04/jug-cologne-ide-bashing-and-the-winner-is/

This event was a lot of fun - I think we should repeat it at other JUGs or conferences. Here is my writeup: http://blogs.sun.com/roumen/entry/jug_cologne_ide_shootout