NetBeans IDE – An Open Source IDE Runs on Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and Solaris

The NetBeans IDE is an open-source Integrated Development Environment and an application platform for software developers that run on platforms such as Windows, Linux, Solaris, and the MacOS. The NetBeans IDE enables the developers to create professional cross-platform desktop, enterprise, web and mobile applications using the Java platform, JavaFX, PHP, JavaScript and Ajax, Ruby and Ruby on Rails, Groovy and Grails, and C/C++.

The NetBeans Platform provides an application architecture that reduces overheads on your application and since this architecture is modular it lets the developers to create the applications that are robust and extensible as well.

All the needed technologies that are needed in order to develop the NetBeans plugins and NetBeans Platform based applications are give by The NetBeans IDE bundle for Java SE where additional SDK is not required.

Modules can be installed dynamically into the application. The users of the application can download digitally-signed upgrades along with the new features directly into the existing (running) application and if user is willing to reinstall an upgrade or go for new release there is no need of downloading the entire application once again.

Since the platform offers reusable services that are common to the desktop applications the developers can focus on the logic that is specific to the application and the features of this platform are
    User interface management (e.g. menus and toolbars)
    User settings management
    Storage management (saving and loading any kind of data)
    Window management
    Wizard framework (supports step-by-step dialogs)
    NetBeans Visual Library

All the functions of the IDE are provided by modules. Each module provides a well defined function, such as support for the Java language, editing, or support for the CVS versioning system, and SVN. The modules that are part of NetBeans IDE are NetBeans Profiler, GUI design tool, NetBeans JavaScript Editor

NetBeans IDE 6.8 Features

C and C++ Projects, Profiler Integration, Compiler Configurations, GNU Debugger, Integration, Code Assistance, Remote Development, Packaging, Qt Toolkit Support, File Navigation, Configuration Manager, Makefile Support, Memory Window, Classes Window

NetBeans IDE 6.9 Beta Release Highlights:
OSGi, NetBeans Platform, JavaFX, Java EE, Java, PHP, Ruby, C/C++

GO4 NetBeans IDE