Message from the NetBeans Team - Why NetBeans 6.7?

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 <http://kenai.com/> integration, and there are many 
smaller features that you can read about on the New and Noteworthy 
<http://wiki.netbeans.org/NewAndNoteWorthy> 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