“The number of tools has exploded in the last few months. Major
vendors such as Cygnus (now owned by Red Hat), IBM, and Sun have
all released IDEs, Java Developer Kits (JDKs), compilers, and other
critical pieces for developing Java on Linux.”
“It wasn’t impractical to develop in Java on Linux before. A lot
of people did it using basic tools like text editors to supplement
the versions of the JDK available from organizations like the
Blackdown group. However, the new generation of tools — including
Java Virtual Machines (JVMs), compilers, IDEs, and version control
systems — promises a more sophisticated experience. In the
last six months Linux has moved from being a Java platform for
pioneers to a major OS for developing and running Java
applications.“
“I think the vast majority of Java developers today use their
favorite editor plus the JDK,” says Rick Ross, founder of the
JavaLobby, a Java advocacy group. “There’s a much lower adoption
and reliance on the IDE for Java development than, say, for Visual
Basic, where it’s impossible to do development without the
IDE.”