After downloading Flex SDK and documentation last week, I came to know about Adobe FlexBuilder, a commercial tool available from Adobe website to develop flex applications. I was really disappointed when i was not able to find even a single free alternativeto FlexBuilder. FlexBuilder is basically based upon eclipse and as soon as I came to know about it, I start wondering if something similar is available for NetBeans as well. And here it is. After some googling around, I found a plugin for NetBeans which would allow me to develop Flex Applications for free. Its pretty easy to install and configure. The only downsidebeing that it won’t give you code auto-complete feature. But anyways, as a beginner its good for me to write my own code instead of making bad habit of code to auto-complete. Below is a quick walkthrough of how I was able toinstall flex plugin into my NetBeans IDE in just 10 easy steps.

1. To download the FlexBean plugin, [url=http://sourceforge.net/projects/flexbean/files/FlexBean/1.1.1%20%28Win%2C%20Linux%2C%20Mac%29/org-netbeans-module-flexbean-1.1.1.nbm/download?use_mirror=nchc&use_mirror=nchc]click here[/url] .
2. Once downloaded, please start NetBeans IDE and click Tools >> Plugins
3. Now in “Plugins” dialog box select “Downloaded” Tab and click “Add Plugins…” button.
4. From “Add Plugins…” dialog please browse to the directory where you downloaded the flex bean plugin file and select it. Finally, click “Open” button to add the plugin to plugin list.
5. Now click “Install” button with FlexBean selected and you will be presented with a FlexBean installation wizard.
6. Click Next, accept the agreement, and finally click install to install the plugin in NetBeans.
7. Click finish and then close all the dialogs to return to NetBeans workbench.
8. To configure FlexBean plugin properly, it needs to know the location where the Flex SDK has been extracted. Click Tools >> Flex Platform.
9. From “Flex Platforms” dialog select"Add Platform…” Button and select the folder where you have extracted Flex SDK and click Next.
10. Finally, write a name of the platform in the next dialog and click Finish.

http://arpitsblog..in/2009/09/free-alternative-to-flexbuilder-in-10.html?m=1

Using flex is totally learning a new language.although I love their look and feel.I'm not sure I want to go outside the Java Circle.