The NetBeans community turned out in full strength at JavaOne this year. From packed out sessions at NetBeans Day to NetBeans-oriented panel discussions throughout JavaOne, NetBeans users were everywhere. 

Below some of them reflect on what they experienced at JavaOne!

Henry Arousell, Sweden. Based on what I saw at JavaOne, I expect NetBeans IDE user numbers to increase greatly over the coming years. Newly added NetBeans IDE features (such as Project Easel, tight integration with Scene Builder, and many more) as well as the fact that literally EVERY presentation (including that of James Gosling) seemed to use NetBeans IDE is very important. I think it indicates that the NetBeans IDE will be the standard-setting player going forward into the future.

I was very attracted by the constant notion of it being the Community that is the core of everything Java. I think this is very good news for a community that was previously anxious about what Oracle ownership would mean. I particularly like the communicated notion of Oracle stewardship rather than ownership or dominance!

I picked up tons of ideas, contacts and friends, and expect to be back next year! In short, I had a great time!

Glenn Holmer, USA. It was great to see the level of enthusiasm at JavaOne this year; I heard several people comment about how it was "like the old days". Also great to see how the level of community participation is up.

I think we're seeing a new generation of coders who not only accept but expect
to contribute to what they're using. And nowhere was that more evident than in the number of people asking questions about NetBeans: how does it work? how can we help? and how can we switch?

Johannes Weigend, Germany. JavaOne 2012 started with a keynote firework on Sunday. It was amazing to see a 3D container terminal simulation done with JavaFX. There was a demo showing an iOS-like JavaOne Conference Planner Application which runs on the Raspberry Pie by using JavaFX/Embedded on Linux (a 30$ single board computer). 

For me, it was already clear that you can use JavaFX for fancy UI gadgets, but now I learned that you can also use it for serious business applications which typically contain Forms, Tables, Trees, simple Controls and maybe Charts. The Java WORA (Write Once Run Anywhere) Dream is more than ever important for polyglot Pad devices and Phones. 

I also learned that JavaFX development with NetBeans is really fun. I visited every possible session concerning JavaFX and got a perfect overview of the architecture, components, layouting, and styling by using CSS or code, data binding, event handling and integration with the NetBeans Platform.

I had the possibility to talk to NetBeans API architect and founder Jaroslav Tulach about the evolution of the NetBeans runtime container. At the time he developed the first version of the container, most applications were monolithic. Ten years after that, OSGi came out and maybe we'll have a standard Java module concept with Java 9. He is a real pioneer.

Last thing to mention is the amazing Java community in Brazil. Muilto bom folks!

Thomas Boqvist, Sweden. I had a great time at JavaOne 2012, starting with NetBeans Day where I discovered that my favorite IDE is evolving faster than ever, visited some really good sessions, especially those concerning the near future for Java technology, met lots of nice people with interesting knowledge and, finally, left confident of my participation in 2013. Count me in!

Çağatay Çivici, Turkey. While I was at JavaOne 2012 this year, I joined two NetBeans panels as a speaker. In addition to the panels, I did live development using NetBeans IDE in "Unlocking the JavaEE Platform" session with Geertjan Wielenga. My final talk was on PrimeFaces, on the final day of the conference. 

Overall I had a great conference, as a PrimeFaces guy and a NetBeans advocate. JavaOne was a great opportunity to catch up with the latest improvements in the Java ecosystem, promotion, and networking.

Timon Veenstra, the Netherlands. From the very first day, JavaOne was great. The NetBeans community sessions where well attended. I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of NetBeans Platform developers present at the panel session that Sunday.

It was also really encouraging to know I am not a Don Quixote fighting web windmills, but that there are a whole bunch of developers out there creating cool applications on the NetBeans Platform.

Thanks all and watch this space because there'll be more articles such as this one in the coming weeks, highlighting the insights that NetBeans community members gathered from their attendance at JavaOne 2012!

Click here to continue to part 2!