Sun Microsystems this week launched an admirable upgrade to its NetBeans open source tools platform, adding prominent features such as J2SE 5.0 and Apache Ant backing, a Java technology performance profiler, refactoring capabilities and additional mobile development support.NetBeans, of course, is viewed as a rival to the IBM-led, open source Eclipse platform. There had been talks a year ago to merge the two platforms, but nothing came of it, with Sun saying it was not offered “an equitable share in mutual development.” So today, we stand with the two separate, competing efforts. But in looking at the numbers, I have to wonder if a clear winner hasn’t already emerged. Sun this week said NetBeans, launched in 2000, has an installed base in the hundreds of thousands. This sounds impressive, until learning that Eclipse has had 39 million download requests since 2001. So the volumes sound lopsided in favor of Eclipse.Given these figures, it would be easy to say that it’s time for Sun and IBM to renew talks to merge the platforms. But I think the industry can do just fine with the two competing technologies and that keeping the status quo here might be the best thing for developers. The competition should keep both camps alert and eager to please, even if one appears to have a distinct advantage in the size of its installed base. Technology Industry