Welcome to NetBeans. NetBeans. Eclipse, NetBeans, and IntelliJ: Assessing the Survivors of the Java IDE Wars. Ver since Eclipse burst out on the Java scene a few years ago, things have gotten very interesting for Java developers.
With SWT and Swing toolkits both having their own strengths and weaknesses but none having any noticeable lead over the others in terms of pure performance or look-and-feel, Eclipse focused the competition among Java IDEs where it belongs: features, ease of use, and productivity. This article explores what the past few years of fierce competition within the Java IDE space (and of course indirectly with Microsoft Visual Studio.NET) have delivered.
It reviews the three major Java IDEs—NetBeans, IntelliJ IDEA, and Eclipse—from the viewpoint of basic, common features (installation, performance, editor, etc.), but it really focuses more on their strengths in four common areas of development: Swing, JSP/Struts, JavaServer Faces (JSF), and J2EE/EJB 3.0.