Eclipse vs NetBeans

Eclipse vs NetBeans …On which side are you on? Let us know which IDE you think is better and why.

Think of Java IDEs and two names that will come up are Eclipse and NetBeans. I have been using NetBeans for many years now and Eclipse has been a more recent addition to my Java armory. I have enjoyed working with both tools and as such don’t have a clear favorite. I prefer NetBeans a little more than Eclipse as I have been using it longer and am more comfortable with it.

The thing I am most surprised about is how rapidly Eclipse has grown and how it has well and truly eclipsed NetBeans over the past year or so.

In the article: Migrating to Eclipse: A developer’s guide to evaluating Eclipse vs. Netbeans, the author shows the differences between the two IDEs.

Just Eclipse or Eclipse in its WSAD avatar or MyEclipseIDE avatar is definitely good but hey..is it so good that nobody wants to be talk of NetBeans these days??? I haven’t as yet tried out the new NetBeans 4 Beta 2 but I do hope it is very good. So that the competition between Eclipse and NetBeans stays fierce and there is no clear winner.

The end user gets two very good IDEs.

* Apr08 Update – Do have a look at this new comparison of JDeveloper, Eclipse and NetBeans

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258 thoughts on “Eclipse vs NetBeans

  • November 19, 2004 at 3:14 am
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    I have migrated from Emacs to JBuilder to JDeveloper to Eclipse and now finally to IntelliJ and i have never felt more comfortable.

    Netbeans is looking good with 4b2

  • November 12, 2004 at 9:58 am
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    I am currently using JBuilder 2005 Foundation because I am using java 1.5 features extensively, but it seems to have a small memory leak. Eclipse doesn’t support all of 1.5 out of the box and just now has swing GUI building, while the Netbeans 4.0 beta throws exceptions and has poor compile-as-you-type. I will probably try IDEA over thanksgiving, but it’s out of my price range.

  • November 12, 2004 at 9:58 am
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    I am currently using JBuilder 2005 Foundation because I am using java 1.5 features extensively, but it seems to have a small memory leak. Eclipse doesn’t support all of 1.5 out of the box and just now has swing GUI building, while the Netbeans 4.0 beta throws exceptions and has poor compile-as-you-type. I will probably try IDEA over thanksgiving, but it’s out of my price range.

  • November 11, 2004 at 1:59 am
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    Netbeans has come a long way, but is still a generation or two behind, and moderately ugly. Eclipse is not perfect, but still a significant improvement. IntelliJ IDEA beats both hands down on every factor except price.

  • November 11, 2004 at 1:59 am
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    Netbeans has come a long way, but is still a generation or two behind, and moderately ugly. Eclipse is not perfect, but still a significant improvement. IntelliJ IDEA beats both hands down on every factor except price.

  • November 9, 2004 at 7:18 pm
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    I tried out the NetBeans IDE 4.1 Early Access, and I like the GUI way more than eclipse. Netbeans seems like a pretty good competitor to me.

  • November 9, 2004 at 7:18 pm
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    I tried out the NetBeans IDE 4.1 Early Access, and I like the GUI way more than eclipse. Netbeans seems like a pretty good competitor to me.

  • November 9, 2004 at 6:54 pm
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    Netbeans is actually pretty clean in version 4.0. However, they are a couple revisions behind Eclipse. I find eclipse clunky to use, but use it since it has all the features I want (enough refactorings, editor niceities, etc…). IDEA is really the best though.

  • November 9, 2004 at 6:54 pm
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    Netbeans is actually pretty clean in version 4.0. However, they are a couple revisions behind Eclipse. I find eclipse clunky to use, but use it since it has all the features I want (enough refactorings, editor niceities, etc…). IDEA is really the best though.

  • October 30, 2004 at 1:14 pm
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    netbeans isn’t an ide it is nothing but a waste of time:

    it was good but still ain’t competitive. Sun should hav been bought by IBM a long time ago. IBM have programmers not sun. sun is wasting time on jds(what the hell !!! is someone trying to sell me a gnome desktop i can download for free. come on don’t tell me that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

  • October 30, 2004 at 1:14 pm
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    netbeans isn’t an ide it is nothing but a waste of time:

    it was good but still ain’t competitive. Sun should hav been bought by IBM a long time ago. IBM have programmers not sun. sun is wasting time on jds(what the hell !!! is someone trying to sell me a gnome desktop i can download for free. come on don’t tell me that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

  • October 29, 2004 at 6:15 pm
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    i found netbeans is easier to use as compare eclipse, take for example ‘mount system’ is easily allow existing project be imported , however, netbeans is slow, i have to turn off auto error checking to speed it up ..

  • October 29, 2004 at 6:15 pm
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    i found netbeans is easier to use as compare eclipse, take for example ‘mount system’ is easily allow existing project be imported , however, netbeans is slow, i have to turn off auto error checking to speed it up ..

  • October 27, 2004 at 11:36 am
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    I have used both the IDEs and think that each of them has their own stron points. If you are looking at doing web application development, Eclipse isn’t there yet but Netbeans makes it a breeze. Whereas if you are looking at application development, the cool features of Eclipse (refactoring and smart helps) may make programming fun.

    I would like to add that both the products are actively trying to overcome these deficiencies in their products and in the next coupe of months you will see both of them move to common fighting ground.

    Till then, I suggest, you look at the type of application rather than the IDE.

  • October 27, 2004 at 11:36 am
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    I have used both the IDEs and think that each of them has their own stron points. If you are looking at doing web application development, Eclipse isn’t there yet but Netbeans makes it a breeze. Whereas if you are looking at application development, the cool features of Eclipse (refactoring and smart helps) may make programming fun.

    I would like to add that both the products are actively trying to overcome these deficiencies in their products and in the next coupe of months you will see both of them move to common fighting ground.

    Till then, I suggest, you look at the type of application rather than the IDE.

  • October 25, 2004 at 8:41 pm
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    Eclipse has ctrl ‘/’ and ctrl ‘\’ for commenting and uncommenting code.

  • October 25, 2004 at 8:41 pm
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    Eclipse has ctrl ‘/’ and ctrl ” for commenting and uncommenting code.

  • October 25, 2004 at 7:20 pm
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    netbeans beta2 is working fine with me. I am looking forward to checking out the new NetBeans IDE 4.1 Early Access. One especially cool development is that with 4.1 NetBeans will support EJB and Web Services development. Hopefully that will make NetBeans a serious competitor to the commercial IDEs.

    >> http://www.netbeans.org/community/releases/41/index.html

  • October 25, 2004 at 7:20 pm
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    netbeans beta2 is working fine with me. I am looking forward to checking out the new NetBeans IDE 4.1 Early Access. One especially cool development is that with 4.1 NetBeans will support EJB and Web Services development. Hopefully that will make NetBeans a serious competitor to the commercial IDEs.

    >> http://www.netbeans.org/community/releases/41/index.html

  • October 23, 2004 at 4:09 am
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    Netbeans sucks big time and everybody knows that. The UI is more beautiful than the one of eclipse but the usability is zero.

    The advantages of eclipse are:
    *speed
    *flexibility : import project, librairies,
    *build support : ant support is great and flexible
    *plugins: let me count netbeans plugins on my fingers…

  • October 23, 2004 at 4:09 am
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    Netbeans sucks big time and everybody knows that. The UI is more beautiful than the one of eclipse but the usability is zero.

    The advantages of eclipse are:
    *speed
    *flexibility : import project, librairies,
    *build support : ant support is great and flexible
    *plugins: let me count netbeans plugins on my fingers…

  • October 22, 2004 at 3:04 pm
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    I used to use Netbeans quite a lot, but found that it was plagued by exceptions. I turned to Eclipse out of sheer frustration and found that it was far more stable. There’s pretty much a plugin for anything that you want to do (the MyEclipse Enterprise Workbench is unbeatable IMO). It looks good. The workspace is highly configurable and it’s fast.

    I gave the new Netbeans beta a go (ok, I admit it, I’m an IDE wh0re) and it promptly threw an exception when I tried to create a project for my existing code. I closed it down and uninstalled it.

    Tox

  • October 22, 2004 at 3:04 pm
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    I used to use Netbeans quite a lot, but found that it was plagued by exceptions. I turned to Eclipse out of sheer frustration and found that it was far more stable. There’s pretty much a plugin for anything that you want to do (the MyEclipse Enterprise Workbench is unbeatable IMO). It looks good. The workspace is highly configurable and it’s fast.

    I gave the new Netbeans beta a go (ok, I admit it, I’m an IDE wh0re) and it promptly threw an exception when I tried to create a project for my existing code. I closed it down and uninstalled it.

    Tox

  • October 22, 2004 at 12:44 pm
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    Eclipse is better looking than NetBeans. So your first impression of Eclipse is always good. perhaps that makes the difference.

    Offering NetBeans bundled with J2SE 5.0 was a smart move by Sun. NetBeans might just reclaim some of its past glory.

  • October 22, 2004 at 12:44 pm
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    Eclipse is better looking than NetBeans. So your first impression of Eclipse is always good. perhaps that makes the difference.

    Offering NetBeans bundled with J2SE 5.0 was a smart move by Sun. NetBeans might just reclaim some of its past glory.

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