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Message from the NetBeans Team: Why NetBeans 6.7?

By: Admin, 19 Feb 2009

For those of you who have been following the NetBeans release train, you may be puzzled by the version number switch in our upcoming milestone release, from NetBeans 7.0 to NetBeans 6.7.

To get innovation and quality improvements out to the community faster, and to have the NetBeans IDE be better aligned with the release schedules of other technologies that it supports, we have decided to concentrate on a series of smaller releases rather than the traditional two big releases per year.

With this new focus on smaller releases, we renamed the next release according to our numbering guidelines:

• Point versions (for example, 6.0 to 6.1) indicate less change, and API compatibility.
• A whole number version jump (for example, 5.0 to 6.0) reflects major feature changes within the NetBeans IDE, and possible API incompatibilities.

These guidelines communicate, in a general way, the level of change to expect in the NetBeans IDE, and we always want to meet these expectations. At this time, NetBeans 6.7 is the best possible product that we can deliver by June 2009. We are confident that this is the right move for the NetBeans IDE and for our users who have come to expect top quality releases.

And why are we skipping a version between 6.5 and 6.7? Well, there are negative associations with the number 6.6...6. Though we appreciate a good laugh, this is not the permanent association we want for the IDE.

NetBeans 6.7 is scheduled for release in June 2009. The main features are Maven and Kenai integration, and there are many smaller features that you can read about on the New and Noteworthy page. Java EE 6 support is planned for a future release. NetBeans 6.7 Milestone 2 is due out next week. We encourage you to download the release when it becomes available and to give us your feedback.

Thank you for your continued support of the NetBeans IDE.
The NetBeans Team