Netbeans

All is working, it seems a nice IDE even though I fail to understand how to make a GUI and none of the Java tutorials are very good.

All the Java tutorials either go into the very basics of what a variable is or they go into a whole load of theory and not very much actual programming.

Safe to say that Sun Microsystems site sucks in every possible way.

I wouldn't recommend NetBeans to others either, it may be somewhat interesting but it's a hassle to get it going right.

NetBeans/JDK Update

Well, it appears I actually downloaded the JDK this time but it turns out that NetBeans 5.5 wont look for JDK 7 and that I need to have JDK 5 or 6 installed.

Needless to say this is starting to frustrate me, especially since NetBeans lacks an option to manually search for a JDK.

Now on to downloading JDK 6 I suppose. If this doesn't work i'm going to give up on Java for at least this year.

JDK Update

Great, so I FINALLY finish a 30MB download of what I thought was the JDK7 download.
Ho, Ho, Ho, I was foolish to believe that a download on the JDK7 DOWNLOAD PAGE, would actually *gasp* be the JDK!

Turns out I downloaded a JRE that requires the JRE to run. Funny, isn't it; you might think that for a second Sun would try to attain some aspect of ease of use.

This is starting to turn out to be more hassle than what I believe it's worth, Java applications don't have a history of being able to use Windows themes; preferring to use their own dull grey theme to stand out and uglify the OS.

Would you like a cup of Java with your NetBeans?

The Netbeans 5.5 CD I ordered a few weeks ago has now arrived.

Shame it doesn't include the JDK alone with it; All the differing versions of Java are somewhat confusing.
Should I download JDK6 which seems to be the stable version with development having ceased.
JDK7 which appears to be the new version.
Or OpenJDK which doesn't seem to actually be a JDK but rather just javac and the Java Virtual Machine.

I ended up deciding to go with JDK7, shall update after the download (30MB .jar file).