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The Matisse layout manager should not be the default in NB5. Doing so creates a dependency on a jar file that isn't available when running the application outside the IDE (see Issue 64295). Even if this is solved by bundling a jar file, it is burdensome to applications that may not realize or want to distribute a second jar file just to use the layout manager. This will hurt acceptance of the new IDE, since the out-of-the-box experience will be frustrating to many users. Please make one of the built-in layout managers the default. To reproduce this, simply create a new JFrame form with nothing in it. Build the program, and then try to run it outside the IDE. It will have an unresolved dependency on org.jdesktop.layout.GroupLayout.
I don't think we should do what you suggest. Matisse is one of the main features of NB 5.0, we'd like people to use it and not to care about layout managers. So "free design" should be set by default. Anyone who wants to use only the standard layout managers can do so. Actually if you create a new form, set a layout manager to it, then next time you open it you get this behavior - a layout manager is used by default for newly added containers. This prevents e.g. the old forms from switching to "free design" unexpectedly. If you had some other idea how to communicate the users how they can stick with JDK standard classes only, that would be welcomed. But having layout managers on by default is not an option. I'm closing this issue as it is not actually a bug. It is rather a topic for discussion. Please bring it to nbusers mailing list if you like.