I have programming experience and I'm interested in learning Java programming using my Fedora Core 4 (FC4) box.
One of the first things I've learned is that there are a number of IDEs ( Integrated Development Environments) that can be used for this purpose. There is eclipse available for my distribution and there are other available from Sun to work under Linux.
My question is: what are the main advantages or limitations of using one of these IDE vrs using the others? Another way to put my question is: when (in what conditions) is it best to use one of these environments vrs the others?
I hope there are some people out there who have confronted this situation before, who can give me some advice. If anyone knows about a comparison of IDEs someone has made before, that will help too. Thanks in advance.

Personally, I swear by NetBeans, because it's a spectacular IDE (you'd have to try it out and read the manual to know all of the features), but Eclipse is a good one too.

I have used both Eclipse and NetBeans before, and both were fine IDEs. Right now I'm using Borland's JBuilder for a CS class, and it also is well done. JBuilder Foundation is the free version, which you can get from here: http://www.borland.com/downloads/dow...jbuilder.html.

IDEs are fine for learning a language, but there's also something to be said for thoroughly learning and using a multipurpose programming editor, like Emacs or vim. With editors you have a consistency across languages you don't get with language-specific IDEs. There are even IDE-like features available (as extra add-ons) that you might not expect, like language auto-completion or compilation and error-checking tools.

Idea4J is another strong contender.

But I would *definitely*be comfortable with the command line JDK as well. Frankly, that's what I use most of the time.

IMHO .. PSM