The four major Java IDEs: Eclipse, NetBeans, IntelliJ IDEA and JDeveloper

An interesting article was recently published on The Server Side:

It discusses a shootout in Cologne between Java IDEs: Eclipse, NetBeans, IntelliJ and JDeveloper. While the author – Kirk Pepperdine – does not suggest explicitly that these then are the four major players when it comes to Java IDEs, that is certainly the impression one might get. Probably justifiedly.
The article does not present (other) conclusions, except for the closing remark that "It also demonstrated that the commanding lead that Eclipse currently enjoys is
not so safe. They need to keep innovating in order to maintain that lead as the
others keep pushing forward in the market.". He then also complimented JetBrains, the only vendor who actually sells the IDE, rather than give it away: "JetBrains clearly demonstrated why they’ve earned their reputation and how they
plan on keeping it."

It is good to see that the plethora of Java IDEs starts to consolidate into a smaller number of serious options. For us it is good to see that we have not invested too much in IDEs not in this list, and some to quite some time in all that are on the list (with JDeveloper and Eclipse clearly leading our list).

Other things to take away are the ‘copying that goes on between IDEs’ – features in one soon will be available in others -, the level of support for standards (e.g. JSRs) and the diversification in all IDEs – with support for scripting languages, database design & development, SOA, DSL, Business Intelligence etc.