I use Eclipse for my Java development. I used to use JBuilder Turbo, but it’s now so hard to get a license of it for more than one computer, I’ve given up and went to straight Eclipse.
Eclipse is a really good development environment with on-the-fly compilation and generally excellent features and a few annoyances. One of the biggest annoyances is its update/install system that usually doesn’t actually find updates and typically doesn’t do a good job of installing new components. One day, I tried to install the profiling tools and the install system had such a hard time finding the components to install, campus security blocked access to the Hiperwall lab because they were sure only malware would hit 70 FTP servers in a few seconds. No, it was Eclipse, it turned out, after I got us blocked a second time. So clearly no Eclipse component installs on campus. When trying at home, I game up after an hour or so of it not finding the components. This isn’t necessarily the fault of the Eclipse developers – they rely on free hosting for mirrors of the files, but the mirrors may not always be up to date or even complete.
Because of these troubles, I tried and am still using Yoxos. Yoxos creates a custom Eclipse at start time, which delays the initial start quite a bit as the components are downloaded, but if nothing changes, future starts are fairly fast. It allows you to select which components you want and then downloads (from Yoxos’ servers) and installs them for you. It works very well and I haven’t had any trouble with a Yoxos-built Eclipse.
The version I’m using is currently free, but as Yoxos is a commercial entity, they charge for some services and this version may eventually cost something. Whether it will be worth the money to save hassle depends on the cost. But for now, Yoxos is a terrific way to use Eclipse and is highly recommended for Java developers.
