I would start a J2SE projects for abuntu OS.
I try both Netbeans GUI builder and Eclipse windowbuilder.
Both of them are good, drag&drop, double-click to create event-handler like VisualStudio.
However i have do a research on Netbeans, someone said:
The second major flaw of Matisse is that it just isn’t good enough,
you place the components on the grid, Matisse then creates an XML with
the component’s attributes, then generates the java code for the
components on the grid. Seems cool, but then you decide you want to
add a button somewhere in the form or resize a component – this
procedure can cause all of the gui to get mixed up throwing the
adjacent components to different places – fixing it can be a pain in
the neck. Even if you managed to place all of the components where
they should be but manually changed some of the generated netbeans
code – you are in a BIG problem, a problem you might not manage to get
out of unless starting all over.
Is that bug still exist on latest netbeans?
What is Pros. and Cons. between Netbeans GUI builder and Eclipse Windowbuilder?
Im using NetBeans since 6.x and never had such problems. Resizing components, adding some new, even working on the generated code etc. is realy easy and had no problem so far. Moreover NB has a visual debugger and an improved GridBagLayout customizer (both since 7.1).
Didn’t use Eclipse Windowbuilder so far, but i guess its capable too. Everyone has it’s own criteria for a gui builder. Btw. the author of this article seem very eclipse-focused (“on the best IDE out there – eclipse”)
I’m sorry i cant give you an answer like “pro / cons of A, pro / cons of B” – as i said i’ve never used Eclipse Windowbuilder before. And for me there’s no need to do so, i can build a gui with netbeans without problems / very easy / fast (even better than with Visual Studio). For my point of view everything works like i want it 🙂
If you used both, maybe there are things you prefer or dislike on one IDE, but the other can do better.