NetBeans 6.9 has today been released and is available to download fromhttp://netbeans.org/downloads/index.html.
Six different NetBeans bundles are available catering for different types of developers. These bundles are available for Java SE, Java FX, Java, Ruby, C/C++ and PHP developers. Each of these download bundles contains different "packs" of NetBeans functionality (for example Java ME is supported in the Java bundle), however different packs, or functionality, can be downloaded and enabled via the IDE's plugin system.
NetBeans 6.9 includes new functionality not present in previous versions. As is common with NetBeans releases, this contains support for some of the newer APIs and toolkit available to the Java developer. The NetBeans team have provided anoverview of NetBeans 6.9 screencast and describe the main new features as:
"NetBeans IDE 6.9 introduces the JavaFX Composer, a visual layout tool for building JavaFX GUI applications. Additional highlights include OSGi interoperability for NetBeans Platform applications and support for developing OSGi bundles with Maven; support for JavaFX SDK 1.3, PHP Zend framework, and Ruby on Rails 3.0; as well as improvements to the Java Editor, Java Debugger, and many more."
Many more screencasts are available showing some of the new functionality in NetBeans 6.9 such as using the JavaFX composer or how NetBeans helps PHP and Ruby developers.
NetBeans 6.9 has undergone a large amount of community testing and has recently been accepted by the community as stable for release. Congratulations to the NetBeans team and the members of the community that helped test the product to ensure it is stable for release.
