Updated: Netbeans 6.5 beta now available

Today it is official: The beta release of Netbeans 6.5 is available.

Download here.

After some internal confusing last days at Amit Sahas’ blog at Sun Lukas Haslik (NetBeans Platform & Core QA team lead) replied, that this “internal” link was not created for public users.

Rohan Ranade replied as every other software development team should care:

@Amit: I agree completely with Lukas. It’s common sense. NetBeans is a product, not just another open source part time project. There are dedicated teams which manage the lifecycle of NetBeans. Such journalistic activism has happened earlier too (earlier too a Sun India guy had done it). It does not do any good to NetBeans image when people download and use untested beta versions. Worse, it creates a headache for QA and Dev when spurious bug reports come in. That’s a definite loss IMO. And remember, you are a SUN employee. What you say on the blog will be taken as official. It’s a double edged sword.

I can agree with him, it is very important for any product to assure a clear and transparent communication strategy to customers. In our world of information overflow it is more important than ever.

Today Netbeans published the official beta link, looking forward to test it developing Java and indeed (for some internal applications) PHP code.

NetBeans IDE 6.5 Beta Highlights:

PHP
o Code Completion
o Quick Fixes and Semantic Checks
o FTP Support
o Debugging with Xdebug
o Support for popular Web Services
Ajax/JavaScript
o Debugging support for Firefox and IE
o HTTP client monitoring
o Bundled popular JavaScript libraries
Java
o Groovy/Grails support
o Compile/Deploy on Save
o Eclipse project import and synchronization
o Built-in Hibernate support
o JSF CRUD Generator now Ajax-enabled
Database
o Editor Improvements
C/C++
o Improved code completion and error highlighting
o Remote Development
Ruby
o Support for Ruby Tests
o Improved support for Rake build tool
GlassFish v3 “Prelude”
o Small footprint, fast startup and deployment
o Support for scripting, including jRuby

Testing Netbeans 6.5 beta!