Installation and Setup
NetBeans 4.1 Beta can be installed—and tested—on the following operating systems:
- Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2
- Solaris operating system (SPARC® and x86 Platform Editions) versions 8, 9, and 10
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3
- Java Desktop System 2
- Mac OS X 10.3
In addition, it also is known to run on the following:
- Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional SP3
- Various other Linux distributions
- Open VMS 7.2-1 or later
- Other UNIX® platforms, such as HP-UX
You will need to have JDK of 1.4.2 or higher, at least 125 MB of hard disk space, 384 MB RAM and a fast processor (detailed requirements are listed at the NetBeans site). You will need to check your installation requirement for the Sun application server should you choose to install one.
Installation was as to be expected in Windows XP. Simple and straightforward. Wanting the full NetBeans experience, I opted to also install Sun's applications server. Once completed, I launched the IDE and viewed the new UI (Figure 7
) and proceeded to setup my first project.
Figure 7
Conclusion
All arrows point towards go on this new revision of NetBeans. Increased performance, cool new features, integrated Ant building, support for Java 5.0—the list goes on. Unless you are one of those faithful-to-the-end patriots, any Eclipse user—or IntelliJ IDEA user, for that matter—should waste no time in evaluating this new version. That said, it is important to keep in mind that Eclipse still has a huge marketshare, is a decent IDE, has a host of plug-ins available and a huge mass of SWT applications that have been developed. So, try it for yourself, compare, and let's talk about it.
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