I had a few minutes to work on this, so I thought I'd at least kick off a download. It wasn't clear how I was to get what I wanted, and I ended up with the wrong thing. I want those few minutes of my life back ...

http://download.netbeans.org/netbeans/6.1/beta/

You will see "NetBeans Packs*" on that Web page. That's the only place on the page where the asterisk character appears!

All I want is the IDE for Java SE and all I see are bundles. I already have the JDK. Very inconspicuously appears "NetBeans ... binary builds without bundled runtimes are also available in zip file format." So I clicked on that. When you see a list like:

[DIR] Parent Directory
[DIR] moduleclusters/ 04-Mar-2008 20:45 1K
[ ] netbeans-6.1beta-200803050202-cpp.zip 04-Mar-2008 20:44 25M
[ ] netbeans-6.1beta-200803050202-javadoc.zip 04-Mar-2008 20:43 20M
[ ] netbeans-6.1beta-200803050202-javaee.zip 04-Mar-2008 20:44 98M
[ ] netbeans-6.1beta-200803050202-javase.zip 04-Mar-2008 20:44 50M
[ ] netbeans-6.1beta-200803050202-mobility.zip 04-Mar-2008 20:44 60M
[ ] netbeans-6.1beta-200803050202-platform-src.zip 04-Mar-2008 18:21 14M
[ ] netbeans-6.1beta-200803050202-ruby.zip 04-Mar-2008 20:44 38M
[ ] netbeans-6.1beta-200803050202-src.zip 04-Mar-2008 18:21 245M
[ ] netbeans-6.1beta-200803050202.zip 04-Mar-2008 20:43 150M
[ ] testdist-200803050202.zip 04-Mar-2008 20:33 55M

which one do you suppose is the "binary build without bundled runtime"? I guessed netbeans-6.1beta-200803050202.zip.

When I got it, WinZip opened and showed me a bunch of files in a flattened hierarchy. I spotted a "Readme" and opened it, hoping for a clue about how to install the IDE from this zip file. Instead, I saw that I had opened a Ruby readme. Why would I have Ruby if all I wanted was the IDE?

So I guess I'll go back and get the Java SE bundle, even though I don't need another copy of the JDK.

That's my first impression of NetBeans IDE 6.1. First impressions still count, right?


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