Over the weekend, I was actively looking for a free (or open source) Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for Java.

Of course, the first place I looked was at the Java homepage: http://java.sun.com/ . There was a mention of the open source NetBeans IDE on the page, so I went there and downloaded the files.

Fortunately for me (or unfortunately, I don't know), the installation kept failing on my Windows ME set up. Everytime the installation was run, it stalled while searching for the available versions of the Java SDK on my machine. I read the install help pages on the site and was disappointed to find one mention inside the page that the software was only successfully tested on Windows 2000/XP, which probably means Windows ME is out of the question...

Anyway, something good did infact come out of my wasted hour struggling with that NetBeans thingy. I found www.eclipse.org instead! Man... I am so impressed by this open source software. They also offer a comprehensive selection of plug-ins, even one for PHP development and C/C++ here: http://www.eclipse.org/community/plugins.html .

I have a good feeling about using the Eclipse Platform, it definitely ranks right up there with the other excellent quality, open source technologies like Linux, Apache, PHP, MySQL and Mozilla!

Many *true* Java developers prefer Eclipse over NetBeans (unlike me ).
Eclipse has developed into a great product and I encourage everyone to give it a try. I recently started to work with KDevelop (doesn't run on Windows ME either ) for some Ruby coding and I found it to be great! I'll try it for Java too and see how it does.

Best regards,
Lucian

I am STILL using eclipse -- but for PHP development. I really like it but at times it can be really slow. I am almost certain it's the PHP plugin that's at fault...

I am happy with it though.

Do you mean it runs really slow, and then picks up again? That's because of the Garbage Colector - when it kicks in (you can't anticipate this) the environment will act up, until all the unused objects are trashed.

When I first started programming C/C++ on my Linux machine, I tried to use Eclipse with the C/C++ plugins, but I could never get it to work. I haven't tried it since, but I probably should; when I tried it out, it was right after Eclipse came out and I think the C/C++ plugin wasn't full-featured.

I've heard great things about it, especially from Java developers. Because it's cross-platform, you don't have to learn a new IDE if you switch systems. I especially like all the plug-ins. For those who care, there is a Python plugin (http://pydev.sourceforge.net/) which has more features than the standard Python interpreter.

KDevelop for Linux is similar; it has many plug-ins for different languages and is fairly full-featured. I've had a few problems with it, but I think it's just an issue w/ my machine and not the IDE itself.

I just learnt some tutorials about eclipse, and i feel it is the most wonderful thing in the world!!!

An AMAZING editor and IDE(worth $40 Million) is for free.

Visual Studio is a dumb notepad when compared to eclipse editor.

I used Netbeans so far, because it is easy to use, at the beginning.
For the first time when i looked at eclipse, it was difficult, and intimidating.
But after going through some tutorials, i am sure i am going to use it from now on...

I shout ECLIPSE ECLIPSE
I cant tell the excitement in words. I feel great.

Paramesh.