There is at least one software company that really does know how to develop remarkable tools for software developers, thats JetBrains.
They are not so mainstream because they are developing only tools for developers, but I have to confess most of these are the best in they area.
If you are a Java developer you may already know about IntelliJ IDEA or if you are developing in Python, PyCharm. They also have products for many other technologies but I’m not able to say how good are they.
Considering the average salaries for software developers it would be a big mistake to be cheap about the development tools you are using. When compared with free alternatives like Eclipse, you should be able to have your ROI in less then a month, if not in a week.
No, I have no relation with JetBrains, other than having the opportunity to use few of their products in the last two years and trust me I’m an open-source enthusiast and I try to use open source tools whenever is possible,… ops better to say “whenever it makes sense”.
Best issue tracker alive
There is another product that got my interest, their issue tracker, YouTrack, and I think this is probably the issue tracker with best user experience I ever encountered, and trust me I used over a dozen of trackers over time.
If you considered JIRA a good issue tracker, let me tell know it is not, personally I call it “goJIRA“, just another too big, slow and hard to use issue tracker, similar with Bugzilla, but commercial. I do know only two products made by Atlasssian, but both of them do provide a really bad user experience, JIRA and Confluence.
The only thing I’m not sure about YouTrack, is its scalability, does it scale for millions of bugs and thousands of products? BTW, if you want to taste the look and feel of this tracker check their own instance, user for their products.
What is the secret recipe used by JetBrains?
I always asked myself what makes the difference between a company that makes the best products from one that makes average products? It’s clear that it’s not about money because SUN with NetBeans or IBM with Eclipse had considerably more to invest in their products. I think that the secret is the product management combined with the adaptability of a small company.
Future acquisition of JetBrains?
I think that during the next 12 months or so, JetBrains is going to be bought by a big player probably Oracle or Google. Let’s see if I’m right or not.