Java IDE (integrated Development Environment) market is one of the most intensely competed in the area of programming tools. NetBeans and Eclipse are two of the four major competitors in this area (IntelliJ IDEA and Oracle JDeveloper are the other two). Both, NetBeans and Eclipse are free and open source software.
What is Eclipse?
Eclipse is an IDE that allows the development of software applications in multiple languages. In fact, it can be called a complete software development environment composed of the IDE and the plug-in system. It is free and open source software released under Eclipse Public License. It is developed in Java and can be used for developing applications mainly in Java. However, with the use of suitable plug-ins, it can be used to develop applications in many other languages such as C, C++, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby and many more. Moreover, packages for Mathematics can be developed on Eclipse. The Eclipse IDE is called Eclipse ADT, Eclipse CDT, Eclipse JDT and Eclipse PDT, when used with Ada, C/C++, Java and PHP, respectively.
It is a cross-platform IDE, which runs on Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris and Windows operating systems. Its current stable release is 3.7, which was released in June, 2011. Eclipse it is completely based on plug-ins (light-weight components). The functionality is not hardcoded like in other applications (instead all functionality is provided by plug-ins). Euquinox is the basis for the runtime system of Eclipse.
What is NetBeans?
NetBeans is an IDE for developing software applications in Java, JavaScript, PHP, Python, C/C++, etc. NetBeans is also a platform framework that can be used for developing desktop applications in Java. NetBeans was developed in Java. It is a cross-platform IDE, which runs on many operating systems such as Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Solaris (as long as the JVM is installed). In addition to JVM, JDK is needed to develop Java applications in NetBeans. Modules (modular components) can be used to develop applications using the NetBeans platform. A separate module exists for different functionality such as editing, versioning and support for Java/CVS. Any application developed using this platform can be extended by third-parties. This is true for the NetBeans IDE itself as well. It is developed by Oracle Corporation and the current stable release is version 7.0, which was released in April, 2011. It is licensed under CDDL (Common Development and Distribution License) offered by Sun.
What is the difference between NetBeans and Eclipse?
Although both NetBeans and Eclipse are two of the most popular free and open source Java IDE, they have their differences. Support for Maven is better in NetBeans. Because you can get GlassFish with Java EE package for NetBeans, it is easier to use than in Eclipses (as you have to configure GlassFish separately). NetBeans comes with build-in GUI builder for Swing, but you need to use a separate plug-in in Eclipse. The general opinions within the Java community about these two IDE are fairly similar. For basic Java (Java SE) development, they both offer comparable features. But if you have a specific purpose, one IDE might be slightly better than the other. For example, there is a general consensus that for developing on OSGi platform, Eclipse is the better option, while NetBeans is better for Java EE development.