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

  • May 3, 2006 at 11:41 am
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    FYI for everyone, my company has developed a great product that is bridging the gap between these two great platforms – Matisse4MyEclipse, the first Swing UI to combine features of NetBeans and Eclipse for the Eclipse platform. This will be part of the MyEclipse 5.0 release, but is currently available for FREE download. http://www.myeclipseide.com

    Let us know what you think. We develop our products based on developer feedback!

    -Jens

    [URL=null]null[/URL][URL=null]null[/URL][URL=http://www.myeclipseide.com/ContentExpress-display-ceid-77.html]MyEclipse[/URL]

  • April 28, 2006 at 11:03 am
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    There’s module to regenerate .form files, refactor is much better, hints are there. So many other stuffs people have pointed out. Netbeans is definitely doing great. I use Eclipse a couple times. A friend of mine (new to Java) took many hours to run a hello world program in Eclipse.

  • April 28, 2006 at 11:03 am
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    There’s module to regenerate .form files, refactor is much better, hints are there. So many other stuffs people have pointed out. Netbeans is definitely doing great. I use Eclipse a couple times. A friend of mine (new to Java) took many hours to run a hello world program in Eclipse.

  • April 25, 2006 at 6:49 am
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    8) Actually it’s not a woe. It’s just a quick note to anyone out there that Eclipse is fantastic for non-enterprise development, and can be coaxed quite nicely with some excellent plugin’s out there. The real power is still held by IBM, as the WSAD (Websphere Application Development) platform. All the really interesting stuff is owned and not released into open source, but built on the eclipse platform. Netbeans is a great product, but locks you into the Sun appserver arena. Go figure. Either platform has it’s problems, especially if you want it free. **shrug**

  • April 25, 2006 at 6:49 am
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    8) Actually it’s not a woe. It’s just a quick note to anyone out there that Eclipse is fantastic for non-enterprise development, and can be coaxed quite nicely with some excellent plugin’s out there. The real power is still held by IBM, as the WSAD (Websphere Application Development) platform. All the really interesting stuff is owned and not released into open source, but built on the eclipse platform. Netbeans is a great product, but locks you into the Sun appserver arena. Go figure. Either platform has it’s problems, especially if you want it free. **shrug**

  • April 2, 2006 at 11:04 pm
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    I used to code with textpad for 4 years and yes that was stupid!

    NB5 rocks but I cannot compare it with Eclipse as I haven’t understood it’s philosophy.

  • April 2, 2006 at 11:04 pm
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    I used to code with textpad for 4 years and yes that was stupid!

    NB5 rocks but I cannot compare it with Eclipse as I haven’t understood it’s philosophy.

  • March 30, 2006 at 8:18 am
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    the vertical line is there to indicate ‘long lines’ (over 80 chars) albeit never have counted it. does netbeans5 of necessity eats up 400 megs on a freebsd6 platform?(:

  • March 30, 2006 at 8:18 am
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    the vertical line is there to indicate ‘long lines’ (over 80 chars) albeit never have counted it. does netbeans5 of necessity eats up 400 megs on a freebsd6 platform?(:

  • March 21, 2006 at 3:58 am
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    To me they are tools, and like any other tools, I use which one is best for the job I am currently working on. Do I have a favorite? Yes, at the moment I am very impressed with Net Beans latest 5.0 release. However, just because I am impressed by it does not mean I no longer see Eclipse as useful, or that it is now the only tool I stock in my shed.

    I will add this though: I’ve run into occasional issues with Eclipse with several of my favorite Linux distros, Suse, Ubuntu, Gentoo. At the moment I am enjoying using NetBeans with Ubuntu, but often if I am working on my linux box I will just end up using KDevelope 😛

  • March 21, 2006 at 3:58 am
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    To me they are tools, and like any other tools, I use which one is best for the job I am currently working on. Do I have a favorite? Yes, at the moment I am very impressed with Net Beans latest 5.0 release. However, just because I am impressed by it does not mean I no longer see Eclipse as useful, or that it is now the only tool I stock in my shed.

    I will add this though: I’ve run into occasional issues with Eclipse with several of my favorite Linux distros, Suse, Ubuntu, Gentoo. At the moment I am enjoying using NetBeans with Ubuntu, but often if I am working on my linux box I will just end up using KDevelope 😛

  • March 20, 2006 at 10:11 pm
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    yes I admit lack of decent support for web in eclipse gave it a bad face .. commonw web tool s project is a joke, jsp editor is as slow as ever …
    on other hand NEtbeans offers :
    profiler (that works 🙂
    seamless deployment to servers: tomcat, etc ….
    http monitor very very handy feature …
    collaboration …
    but, still netBeans CVS is as crapy as it can get even if they claimed it to be a revork,
    nothing compares to eclipses CVS and it perpectives as well ……

  • March 20, 2006 at 10:11 pm
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    yes I admit lack of decent support for web in eclipse gave it a bad face .. commonw web tool s project is a joke, jsp editor is as slow as ever …
    on other hand NEtbeans offers :
    profiler (that works 🙂
    seamless deployment to servers: tomcat, etc ….
    http monitor very very handy feature …
    collaboration …
    but, still netBeans CVS is as crapy as it can get even if they claimed it to be a revork,
    nothing compares to eclipses CVS and it perpectives as well ……

  • March 17, 2006 at 12:55 pm
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    ‘NetBeans IDE 5.0’ rocks. [50 MB]

    ‘Eclipse SDK 3.1.2’ rocks too. [100 MB]

    I use both.

    Please note, I am a gruduate student.

  • March 17, 2006 at 12:55 pm
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    ‘NetBeans IDE 5.0’ rocks. [50 MB]

    ‘Eclipse SDK 3.1.2’ rocks too. [100 MB]

    I use both.

    Please note, I am a gruduate student.

  • March 16, 2006 at 5:30 am
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    I really love NetBeans 5.0. Eventhough I still code using Eclipse, the new NetBeans is now my premier IDE of choice.

    P.S. What the heck is that vertical line in the text editor in NetBeans????

  • March 16, 2006 at 5:30 am
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    I really love NetBeans 5.0. Eventhough I still code using Eclipse, the new NetBeans is now my premier IDE of choice.

    P.S. What the heck is that vertical line in the text editor in NetBeans????

  • March 8, 2006 at 9:38 pm
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    And also it is very intuitive for beginners to start with! Try it, you wont be dissapointed. It has already far surpassed delphi.
    Eclipse is also good. But is is really made for guru. What else is that it has inferior support for GUI design, at least for Swing.
    BTW, Swing has become the dominant GUI toolkit, surpassing WinForms according to EvansData survey.

  • March 8, 2006 at 9:38 pm
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    And also it is very intuitive for beginners to start with! Try it, you wont be dissapointed. It has already far surpassed delphi.
    Eclipse is also good. But is is really made for guru. What else is that it has inferior support for GUI design, at least for Swing.
    BTW, Swing has become the dominant GUI toolkit, surpassing WinForms according to EvansData survey.

  • March 7, 2006 at 10:09 pm
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    It’s just an IDE, as a Microsoft whore of many years wanting to move to the far greener pastures of Java, which one is easiest for application development? (mainly desktop for me, but opinions on web / mobile / global domination EJB’s welcome…) All I want to do is program (doing it 25 years already) without going technicoloured in the face when the IDE locks up without me saving my work.

    Beyond ‘which look and feel is best’, what are the learning curves, and the ease of flexibility?

    Please help, I’m developing a serious hate for Gill Bates and her Redmond hotel and it’s desire for the planets wealth. We don’t want to spend 3 to 6 months learning to be efficient in one IDE just to learn the other is better.

  • March 7, 2006 at 10:09 pm
    Permalink

    It’s just an IDE, as a Microsoft whore of many years wanting to move to the far greener pastures of Java, which one is easiest for application development? (mainly desktop for me, but opinions on web / mobile / global domination EJB’s welcome…) All I want to do is program (doing it 25 years already) without going technicoloured in the face when the IDE locks up without me saving my work.

    Beyond ‘which look and feel is best’, what are the learning curves, and the ease of flexibility?

    Please help, I’m developing a serious hate for Gill Bates and her Redmond hotel and it’s desire for the planets wealth. We don’t want to spend 3 to 6 months learning to be efficient in one IDE just to learn the other is better.

  • March 1, 2006 at 2:03 pm
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    I believe in productivity and ease of use. IDE’s must provide an interface that helps us to accomplish our objectives without any other distractions.

    So, productivity relies on users knowledge on the tool, and also, on the experience in language and methodologies, while ease of use is the real thing to measure in the IDE’s.

    If you have a project and you try to reproduce it in both IDE’s (and even between different versions) you’ll get an answer for wich one is better… it will be the one you feel better and more confident and also where you can get things working in less time… you are not missing anything if you are not using Eclipse! :grin

  • March 1, 2006 at 2:03 pm
    Permalink

    I believe in productivity and ease of use. IDE’s must provide an interface that helps us to accomplish our objectives without any other distractions.

    So, productivity relies on users knowledge on the tool, and also, on the experience in language and methodologies, while ease of use is the real thing to measure in the IDE’s.

    If you have a project and you try to reproduce it in both IDE’s (and even between different versions) you’ll get an answer for wich one is better… it will be the one you feel better and more confident and also where you can get things working in less time… you are not missing anything if you are not using Eclipse! :grin

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