Timothy Cramer of Netbeans has some interesting desktop Java related comments in his interview with TSS. In regards to Swing:
"There has been alot of blogging about Swing vs. SWT..So let me just say this -- Swing is much easier to learn than SWT and all those blogs will support me on this. Swing, the NetBeans Platform and the NetBeans IDE are 100% pure Java - you are not being locked in to someone else's proprietary implementation. Also, the knock on Swing was performance. With the renewed emphasis on the developer for JDK 1.4.2 and JDK 5 there have been major improvements by the Swing team. Check out IntelliJ or NetBeans, both huge swing apps and very performant."
In regards to Netbeans as a platform it looks as if they are stressing not having to use different SWT libraries on different platforms.
"The most important point - and I cannot emphasize this enough -- is that NetBeans is 100% Java so you know that it will run on any OS which supports a 1.4 or later JVM. There is no special sauce required for each and every operating system or window manager. Let's face it - 80% of the cost of software is maintenance - so having one source root and one installer has tremendous advantages."
The real question is whether Netbeans Platform will be stressed as much going forward as the Netbeans IDE. This is one area where I think Eclipse has progressed well in the last year. It isn't all about the IDE. It would be nice if Netbeans would take a similar approach by offering automated support for creating installers, Java Webstart support, etc for applications built on the platform. A renewed stream of articles related to Netbeans Platform based development would also go a long way toward more developers/organizations considering it as a rich client foundation option.
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