Sun has released NetBeans 4.0, an open source IDE for Java, written in Java. NetBeans is available for Windows, Linux, the Solaris(tm) Operating System and Mac OS X. New features in version 4 include:
Java 1.4.2 or later is required.
I've heard good things about this release, but so far only from people inside Sun. I don't think I've yet noticed anybody outside Sun who prefers NetBeans 4.0 to IntelliJ IDEA or Eclipse. I know some of the people at Sun who are saying how much they like this release, and I don't think they're just parroting the company line. They do honestly like this product. I just wonder what's in the Kool-Aid over there to give them such a different perspective from everyone external to Sun.
The Jakarta Apache Project has released Commons Transaction 1.0. "Commons Transaction aims at providing lightweight, standardized, well tested and efficient implementations of utility classes commonly used in transactional Java programming. Initially there are implementations for multi level locks, transactional collections and transactional file access. There may be additional implementations when the common need for them becomes obvious. However, the complete component shall remain compatible to JDK1.2 and should have minimal dependencies."
The Apache Jakarta Commons Team has released Commons Net 1.3.0 (formerly known as ORO NetComponents), an open source (Apache license) suite of internet protocols implemented in Java including Finger, Whois, TFTP, Telnet, POP3, FTP, NNTP, SMTP, discard, rexec, rcmd, rlogin, Time and Echo. 1.3 adds support for the Network Time Protocol (NTP) and the Simple Network Time Protocol (SNTP). It also fixes numerous bugs.