ide and application server for java

Question

Which is the best application server and the best ide for an absolute beginner for locally hosting servlets

Answer 1

One good solution is Eclipse + Tomcat.

Check this screencast for further information.

Answer 2

Eclipse and netbeans each have a distribution that includes all you need for Servlet development, including a server.

Between the two, eclipse is the more powerful, but for a beginner it could be a bit overwhelming. Netbeans is less configurable, but that also means there's less to distract you from the "normal" way of doing things, which is probably the best for a beginner.