IntelliJ IDEA goes open-source

As a long time Java fan and Java developer, I was excited to read this blog announcement this morning. IntelliJ IDEA goes open-source with its IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition.

I started using IntelliJ IDEA while at my first real job, Eternal Systems, Inc., back in 2002. At the time, IDEA was superb and much better than any other Java IDE (probably than any IDE). I have just started playing with the community edition (version 9.0-beta) and it seems that JetBrains has kept up the good work. If you are a Java developer, I highly recommend you test out this IDE. Have a look at this video for a quick glimpse.

While individuals will certainly benefit from this release, I think JetBrains will too. In particular, I believe that programming teachers will pick up this IDE as a recommended tool for their students who make their first steps in programming. With its constant and real-time code inspections, IDEA will be a great educational resource and students will not forget it after they graduate.