Java IDEs

The current state of the Java IDE marketplace is that there are basically two major players:

• NetBeans ( http://www.netbeans.org/ )
  • A Java IDE written in Java
  • You can download a free version of NetBeans from the above website.

NetBeans was developed by Sun Microsystems, who open sourced it. After Oracle acquired Sun, Oracle donated NetBeans to Apache, where it is now being developed.

• Eclipse
  • You can download it for free from here.

Lists of Java IDE references may be found at (Some may not be terribly up to date):

• http://www.apl.jhu.edu/~hall/java/IDEs.html
• http://java.about.com/od/idesandeditors/IDEs_and_Editors.htm 
• http://javaboutique.internet.com/demoIDEs/