[lesbaker]

I think you make a good point -- the "mod-ability" of Eclipse simultaneously makes it attractive to people who like to customize their dev environment to the max and is a big weakness. Some people just want an out-of-box experience that just works.

As an example, I barely remember (since it was a while back) having to find and configure Maven support. Search for the plugin (think it was called m2eclipse). Then add the plugin repository to a list inside the update dialog. Then select the appropriate bundle. Then figure out where the new menu options are (right-click on the POM? on the project?) I also remember not fully grokking the workspace concept (Why can't I work with the checked-out project directly?) This was two/three years back so I'm sure Eclipse may have improved a lot in the meantime.

Take it for what you will -- the point is not to get into Eclipse vs. other IDE discussion, but that having a lot of stuff ready to go and discoverable matters a lot to Joe Developer (and to the person trying to onboard him).