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What is the best free IDE to use for Java?

I would just like to know what is the best Java IDE to use and where can I find it? I already have Forte and NetBeans, although I have never used any of them.

Thanks

Hannes

m_onkey_boy

Personal preference.

bobbit31

bagi112599

Forte is a good one, I wil also recommend
Jdeveloper trial version. Jdevloper has a built in
Servelt, Jsp test environment.
http://otn.oracle.com/software/products/jdev/content.html

gtloafer

I agree with bagi, Forte is pretty good, a bit too big a download perhaps, but a very robust IDE. But if you're looking for something light you could try the JCreator Lite edition. It's got nice syntax highlighting, it allows you to do block manipulation. You can configure it use the tools provided by your JDK installation.

After having said that I must add though that nothing beats Industrial Strength IDE's for serious programming such as Borland's JBuilder, or IBM's Visual age .I prefer the former. At least for the extensive debugging features they provide. Visual Age also has a source control system that I've found to be a life saver on occasions. But I guess it boils down to what kind of coding you want to do.

regards gtloafer

rajesh_bala

ItelliJ's IDEA is also the best IDE. It has got a lot of features.

http://www.intellij.com/

Sharathrao

Also jCreator is a very good IDE.It is also very lite compared to others.

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paku

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rajesh_bala

For JBuilder u need to shell out a lot of money. He is asking for a Free IDE. As of now IDEA is the best one in that category. Try it once. They have commented about this ide in www.theserverside.com too.

hannes1

ASKER

What about JBuilder University Edition?

Cheers

Hannes

gtloafer

Err ... just an observation, after hearing about IDEA I went to their site. While impressive I don't think an IDE that gives you a 21 day evaluation key can be considered free ?

hannes1

ASKER

Thanks.