Is JetBrains Selling Arms to the Enemy?

Okay, I don't want to be controversial, however after reading the latest blog from the CTO of JetBrains, I just got to sound off! For the uninitiated JetBrains is the developer of the kick-ass Java IDE IntelliJ IDEA. It appears that JetBrains has a plan to develop, god forbid, a addin for VS.NET!

See, Java developers have for a while now have a enviable position of having bleeding edge coding tools. Something many in the .NET community aren't aware of and therefore don't miss.

Now, I'm not against companies exploring new market opportunities. However, isn't creating an addin for VS.NET just like selling arms to your enemies?

Looks like it's high time that a Java company purchase this company and take it out of the market before Microsoft takes notice. Potential acquirers are aplenty. Sun needs to modernize its NetBeans framework, Oracle and BEA are making astonishingly huge improvements and IDEA would be a perfect compliment. Borland may be taking some heat from Eclipse and just might take the plunge.

Okay, this is going to be a bit tough to make a prediction. Sun's NetBeans staff and IDEA's staff are both in the Czech Republic so logistically it makes sense. However, Sun is quite slow on its feet unlike Oracle, BEA and Borland. Borland already has a pretty competitive solution so it doesn't have the urgency. Oracle has a good solution and considering its own market doesn't really care to have bleeding edge tools, it just may want to wait. BEA however is more threatened by IBM's Eclipse, although I must admit it already has killer enterprise functionality in workshop. However improving its coding capabilities will make it untouchable. That thought alone makes it more value to BEA than anyone else. So I'm going to bet than BEA takes the prize.

This leaves the final question, is JetBrains up for sale? My guess it is, afterall, as much as I would love to think of it as a pure technically motivated firm, it is also driven by monetary needs. Afterall, where is the motivation for a VS.NET plugin coming from?

[UPDATE] Martin Fowler has blogged about this and writes:

Also TheServerSide.com has a thread discussing the features of BEA's Workshop product. It's a fine time to be a Java developer!