Sun Microsystems is hoping to leverage the popularity of Red Hat's JBoss, with software making it easier to use NetBeans with the application server.

Sun Wednesday released an installer that includes the NetBeans integrated development environment (IDE) and the JBoss Application Server in a single bundle.

According to Sun, still the industry's single largest NetBeans evangelist, the installer would allow developers to do a single installation and begin developing Java Enterprise Edition (Java EE) applications "immediately." The installer is available for Solaris, GNU/Linux, Apple's OS X and Windows.

This piece of kit comes four months after JBoss' chief executive Marc Fleury made a surprise endorsement of NetBeans on stage with Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz at this year's JavaOne in San Francisco.

JBoss already provides an IDE based on NetBean's rival Eclipse, backed by IBM. The IDE features EJB 3.0 wizard, tools for Hibernate and Aspect Oriented Programming, and integrated debugging, monitoring and lifecycle control of JBoss servers. Fleury subsequently told The Register NetBeans had a lot of good technology, and called the Matisse graphical user interface builder "fantastic." "We are neutral in the IDE wars," he said during an interview.

JBoss may be neutral but it's getting more use than Sun's application server. Sun is hoping more JBoss developers will start playing with NetBeans, increasing Sun's presence in open source tools and challenging Eclipse.®

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