After part 1, in Embedded Insights, the series Eclipse and NetBeans replacing embedded IDEs by principal analyst Robert Cravotta continues below.

Many embedded tool developers are choosing to migrate their embedded development toolset to an open source IDE platform for a number of reasons. Maintaining an up-to-date IDE with the latest ideas, innovations, and features requires continuous effort from the tool development team. In contrast to maintaining a proprietary IDE, adopting an open source IDE platform enables the tool developers to leverage the ideas and effort of the community and take advantage of advances in IDE features much sooner and without incurring the full risk of experimenting with new features in their own toolsets. Both the Eclipse and NetBeans platforms deliver regular releases that enable tool developers to more easily take advantage of the newest features in the platform architecture. 

Read more of part 2 here, in an article published Thursday, May 17th, 2012.

Both the NetBeans and Eclipse projects began as development environments and both evolved into platforms that support a wider array of software products. Both platforms have been actively supported and evolving open source projects that have competed and coexisted together for the past decade and this has led to a level a parity between the two platforms. From the perspective of a tool developer, applications are built the same way on either platform – the difference is in the specific terminology and tools.

Read more of part 3 here, in an article published Tuesday, June 12th, 2012.

And, as a bonus in this blog entry, here's how to get started creating an IDE on the NetBeans Platform: 

http://netbeans.dzone.com/how-to-create-commercial-quality-ide