Sun Consolidates Tools Effort Behind NetBeans

NetBeans has been upgraded in version 6.0, and users of Studio Enterprise and Studio Creator will find key features they're familiar with in NetBeans.

Charles Babcock, Editor at Large, Cloud

December 14, 2007

4 Min Read
InformationWeek logo in a gray background | InformationWeek

After a heavy investment in high-end tools, Sun Microsystems is encouraging users of Java Studio Enterprise and Java Studio Creator to migrate to what used to be its low-end offering, NetBeans.

NetBeans has been upgraded in version 6.0, and users of Studio Enterprise and Studio Creator will find key features of the environment they're familiar with in NetBeans. Although Sun only talked about the enhancements to NetBeans 6.0 in a press release this week, its Web site for developers gives them a nudge to migrate.

"For a limited time we are offering up to 6 months of FREE migration help for Sun Studio Enterprise and Sun Java Studio Creator to NetBeans 6.0," the posting states. Its headline reads: "Migration From Java Studio Enterprise and/or Java Studio Creator to NetBeans 6.0."

Is there a recommended timeframe to migrate? Sun spokesmen didn't immediately respond to the question, but there was a hint on the site: "Offer expires June 3, 2008."

NetBeans technology evangelist Greg Sporar said Java Studio Creator and Java Studio Enterprise will no longer be offered for sale or included in Sun's product catalogue starting in "early in 2008." Support contracts continue for several years, but at some undefined point in the future, technical support will be withdrawn from the two products.

Sporar said Sun's move was in part because of positive user response to rapid enhancements to NetBeans and requests that Sun not produce multiple integrated development environments, he said in an interview.

"Customers were telling us they want us to put all our wood behind one arrow," he said. Sun had pointed out to users of the two tools that enhancements to the previous version of NetBeans in October 2006 included major features of the two tools. The Visual Web Pack in the 5.5 version of NetBeans "came out of Java Studio Creator. The UML support came from Java Studio Enterprise," he said.

But Sporar reassured customers that technical support "will continue quite a ways out. We have to honor our support agreements." Development on both tools has been discontinued, he affirmed.

Although it's been offering tools for free recently, Sun at one time banked heavily on a high-end line of Java tools. It acquired Forte Software in 1999 when it was 8 years old for $700 million at the same time it acquired NetBeans, a Prague startup, for what was presumed to be a much lower price. It made NetBeans a free and open source offering, with Java Studio Creator and Java Studio Enterprise, the latter based on Forte, its commercial products.

Sun also acquired the NetDynamics application server, which came with its own set of tools, and entered into a partnership with AOL and Netscape to combine the Netscape application server with NetDynamics, bringing more development tools from both application servers into its portfolio.

But Java tool providers rallied to a new open source programmer's workbench called Eclipse soon afterward. IBM had developed the workbench in-house to rationalize and merge the many tools produced for its WebSphere application server and other middleware. What worked in-house at IBM seemed to work in the larger world, and Sun witnessed its key rival in the Java marketplace rally toolmakers to an open source platform. The difficulty of remaining a profitable tool supplier was illustrated by one of the oldest independent tool suppliers, Borland Software, when it shifted focus in 2005 and 2006 to produce software to manage the application life cycle instead of focusing primarily on tools. It still offers tools, such as Together Unified Modeling Language modeling tools, but has shifted part of its tool offerings, such as JBuilder and Delphi, into an independent business unit, CodeGear.

Sun's 6.0 version of NetBeans will include the next-generation user interface creator, the Swing GUI Builder, formerly known as Project Matisse inside Sun. It will include the Swing Application Framework, which provides underlying plumbing for user interfaces.

Version 6.0 also enhances NetBeans' language-handling capabilities outside of Java, containing new file navigation functionality for C and C++ and debugging capabilities for Ruby and Ruby on Rails, two popular development platforms for the Ruby scripting language.

Jeet Kaul, Sun's VP of developer products, said in a statement that NetBeans is enjoying a high rate of downloads off Sun's developer site and an active mailing list. In the past three years, NetBeans has experienced 16 million downloads and a 300% increase in its e-mail list, he said.

Read more about:

20072007

About the Author

Charles Babcock

Editor at Large, Cloud

Charles Babcock is an editor-at-large for InformationWeek and author of Management Strategies for the Cloud Revolution, a McGraw-Hill book. He is the former editor-in-chief of Digital News, former software editor of Computerworld and former technology editor of Interactive Week. He is a graduate of Syracuse University where he obtained a bachelor's degree in journalism. He joined the publication in 2003.

Never Miss a Beat: Get a snapshot of the issues affecting the IT industry straight to your inbox.

You May Also Like


More Insights