NetBeans 6.0 Beta 1

Is it a beta? Is it not a beta? Whose damn beta is it, anyway? That about sums up the back-and-forth surrounding the release of NetBeans 6.0 as Beta 1. The story goes that eager users spotted the beta on the public NetBeans site when it apparently wasn't supposed to be out yet.

Here's how it unfolded on Roumen's blog

13 September 2007

Although some developers already found the hidden link to download beta1 release of NetBeans 6 (which I am obviously not going to provide :), this is not the official release yet. We appreciate the large amount of interest into our testing bits, but please wait for the official announcement, otherwise you may download a version which is not the final version of beta1 — the bits may be respun. Beta1 release is coming in few days!

17 September 2007

NetBeans 6 beta1 has just been released. Get it from netbeans.org. We’ll discuss it in the 35th episode of NetBeans podcast which will go live tonight. While you’re at it, you can also download final release of Glassfish v2 from glassfish.dev.java.net. Released just a while ago, too!

What's improved in the IDE

• Editor Improvements
• Ruby/JRuby/Ruby on Rails Support
• Easier Installation and Upgrading
• Swing GUI Development
• Profiling

The full list is on the New and Noteworthy page.

• JavaLobby NetBeans 6.0 beta1 Release
• TheServerSide Netbeans 6.0 beta and Glassfish V2 released today

I've installed Beta 1 mainly for Maven and UML support. I haven't had a chance to play with it yet, but when I do, look out, evangelist…