Sun has released version 6 of the Java Platform Enterprise Edition (Java EE), along with version 3 of the GlassFish application server and the open source NetBeans 6.8 development environment ...

For the desktop, NetBeans IDE 7.1, released Thursday, updated the software’s Matisse editor, which now uses the latest version of the Java Swing GUI (graphical user interface) library.

On Tuesday Oracle announced the release of a new version of its NetBeans IDE, 8.0, that takes advantage of the latest enhancements in Java SE 8, among other changes.

Mills claimed that NetBeans 7 is the first open source IDE to support the new Java (though JetBrains offers a beta of its IntelliJ IDE that also supports the draft specification).