The NetBeans open source project is proud to announce that the NetBeans IDE 4.0 Beta 2 is now available as both an individual download and also bundled with the newly released production version of Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition Development Kit 5.0 (J2SE 5.0 a.k.a. "Tiger").

Since the NetBeans IDE Beta 1 release, over 900 bugs have been fixed including 65 in the performance area. The NetBeans IDE provides a pure Java technology integrated development environment for Windows, Linux, the Solaris Operating System and Mac OS X.

Download:

* NetBeans IDE 4.0 Beta 2:
     http://www.netbeans.org/downloads/index.html

* NetBeans 4.0 Beta 2 bundled with Java's next generation J2SE 5.0:
     http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/download.jsp

You may continue to the full NetBeans IDE 4.0 Beta 2 announcement (http://www.netbeans.org/community/releases/40/beta.html) or wish to visit the documentation list (http://www.netbeans.org/kb/articles/doclist-40beta.html) for the NetBeans IDE 4.0 Beta 2</a> which includes: Quick start guides, import and migration guides in addition to tutorials and other articles.

Netbeans is looking like a nice product, congrats!

Rob
http://www.robsite.org

Netbeans is looking like a nice product, congrats!

After years of eclipse usage, this is the first release that made me think about actually using it.

It's a waaaay much better then 3.x series.

I think NetBeans could be better than Eclipse.
Before I used Eclipse but now I use Eclipse for debugging only (I have some pbls with NetBeans...).
But NB Beta 2 is faster than Beta 1 with J2SE 5.0.
Project organization of NB 4.0 is better than Eclipse : src, test, build .. directories

It's way better than beta 1 which rendered unusable after a week of using it, because of some error in the MDR.
I've been using beta2 since it was released on an JXTA project as well as a J2ME project.

Iwan

Woooooowwwwww.
Beautiful product.
Tahnks for producing such a great product. I recommend to evry java developer.

I have used both eclipse and netbeans. With jdk1.5 underneath, netbeans 4.0 still a touch slower.

It runs as fast as Eclipse 3.0.
Anyway, i have 1 GB of RAM on my laptop, so may be that is the case.
I am using JDK 1.5.0

Srini

NetBeans 4 looks like a winner to me. I downloaded Beta 1 last week and began to use it. The major difference for NB 3.x users is 4.0's new usabile interface. Projects are built around Ant build scripts. The New Project Wizard is able to parse Ant scripts for build elements. It automatically creates an NB project. The code browser lets you navigate among Ant build elements, by package, or by file/directory. That's a whole-lot-better than 3.x.

I also like that for the first time I am able to use the debugger while I use Ant as my build mechanism. I never did figure out how to add breakpoints and use the NB 3.x debugger when I used an Ant script to build. It's probably obvious but I didn't find an answer.

New in Beta 2 are New Project Wizards specifically for Web Applications. This makes packaging EJB and Web apps easy. I went from code to a Tomcat Web app in about 10 minutes. Nice!

I've always been a fan of NB and still find myself losing productivity navigating through Eclipse's modal user interface. NB 4 is a very nice present.

-Frank Cohen
Author of Java Testing and Design: From Unit Testing to Automated Web Tests
http://thebook.pushtotest.com

I *really* like the new UI and the sidebar sliding windows in NB 4.0. I agree totally about Eclipe's modal views/perspectives on things -- it slows me down, all the buttons and tabs are distracting, and it feels too multiple-personality disorderish.

Eclipse in general has lots of good features, and a few great ones, but the interface sure is cluttered and messy, IMO, and could use some polishing. It looks to me like NB 4.0 has pretty much everything I need, and has caught up feature-wise in addition to having a a really nice UI feel.

I don't know why people are so concerned about instant responsiveness, though, when the UI design itself makes more of a difference in terms of workflow and number of steps to accomplish what you want to do. NB 4.0 seems plenty fast.

I'm going to try living with NB 4.0 Beta 2 for a week or two and see how it goes.

I don't know why people are so concerned about instant responsiveness, though, when the UI design itself makes more of a difference in terms of workflow and number of steps to accomplish what you want to do.

I guess it depends on how much responsiveness you get when you work. It can be very annoying when you are constantly interrupted with subtle operations..

I'm not sure why this is the case, but I haven't got a good experience with both Forte and NetBeans.. I just downloaded NetBeans 4.0 Beta2. Every time I tried choosing a file from file dialogue ("Add project" button), it just became *very* slow. I wonder why this is the case. I'm not using a slow machine either (P4 2.8GHz, 1GB RAM).

Of course, this could be just me and/or my PC getting cluttered up with stuff. I'll have another try later this week with another machine.

But the point is, it's quite important to have fast IDE.. otherwise, I would stick with JDK, ant, vi combination like I used to.


P.S. I'm not recommending nor bashing any particular IDE, and I have no association with any IDE vendor, but I haven't had much trouble with IntelliJ IDEA and Eclipse. (I've been just using JDK console for my development)

After wasting time with previous versions of Neatbeans I was hesitant to try this one (4.0). I must say I was very impressed after taking it for a spin. Congratulations guys. Keep up the good work.

Very nice window system. But the default Font&Color is crab. It is so hard for me to read on my LCD monitor. Sure, I can change the setting. However, it is inconvenient for everyone to do that. It even does not have a naming schema to manage the settings like IDEA does.

Huge improvement over 3.x, but after having used IntelliJ for three years, NetBeans still feels a bit slow and cumbersome to use.

Highlights from the competitive matrix on the website:

1. Eclipse has limited JavaBeans support, while NetBeans has full support. Wonder what this means?
2. Says "Ant as a first class build system" is applicable only to NetBeans. What's that supposed to mean? I've been using Ant with Eclipse for few months now!
3. Awards a check to NetBeans for "XML Support: Source Editing (better than plain text, e.g. coloring)". Hmm, funny, you get plugins for Eclipse to do that.
4. XSLT Support - Now this I know isn't supported by Eclipse (though I'm sure there would be plugins out there that do that).

By its own competitive matrix, the only section NetBeans has more boxes checked is the "Web Applications Development" section. However, it says Eclipse doesnt' have Tomcat 4 or 5 support, or webapps debugging, etc, which I find a marketing BS. I have been using Eclipse with both tomcat 4.x and 5.x without any problems.

I'm all for open source options, but I haven't yet found a compelling reason to switch to Netbeans

Highlights from the competitive matrix on the website:

1. Eclipse has limited JavaBeans support, while NetBeans has full support. Wonder what this means?

My assumption is that has to do with the ability of the GUI to manage JavaBeans properties and generate everything you need to build a bean properties without coding a line?

2. Says "Ant as a first class build system" is applicable only to NetBeans. What's that supposed to mean? I've been using Ant with Eclipse for few months now!

I believe that means that Ant is integrated with the IDE. If you create a project, you get an ant script. It's part of the product, not an addon.

3. Awards a check to NetBeans for "XML Support: Source Editing (better than plain text, e.g. coloring)". Hmm, funny, you get plugins for Eclipse to do that.

As above...it's a part of the IDE as shipped, not a plugin.

4. XSLT Support - Now this I know isn't supported by Eclipse (though I'm sure there would be plugins out there that do that). By its own competitive matrix, the only section NetBeans has more boxes checked is the "Web Applications Development" section. However, it says Eclipse doesnt' have Tomcat 4 or 5 support, or webapps debugging, etc, which I find a marketing BS. I have been using Eclipse with both tomcat 4.x and 5.x without any problems.I'm all for open source options, but I haven't yet found a compelling reason to switch to Netbeans

Hmmm, Eclipse doesn't ship with a Tomcat container as Netbeans does. I think it has more to do with what you can do out of the box rather than the plug ins available.

That's why if I'm providing a free Java IDE to a beginning Java programmer, I'm choosing NetBeans over Eclipse. I found it much easier to learn on than Eclipse, and I wish it was as good as NB 4 is when I was learning on it.

NetBeans 4 is that good. Eclipse will be even better in its next iteration because of it too. Competition is a good thing!