Eclipse's Maven support is not great. IntelliJ's is better but Netbean's is the best in my opinion. The problem with IntelliJ's Maven support is it doesn't handle multiple non-nested projects well.
If I were able to set up global Maven build configurations without having to jin up a dummy parent project, I'd make the switch. IntelliJ has superior support for running and debugging individual JUnit tests and application debugging in general.
I also like the ability to set up a variety of "runners" in IntelliJ and then execute them with a fuzzy find as if I were on the command line.
I use IntelliJ with multiple non-nested Maven projects all the time.
I typically have a projects directory under which I have many subfolders containing Maven projects. In IntelliJ I create a single module rooted at my "projects" folder but for this module do not set up any sources. Then it is just a matter of right-clicking any POM and selecting "Add as Maven project..." I can enable/disable these projects at whim.
You can also simply add each module at a time.
I've always been impressed that it "just works". It'll even do in-IDE compilation against latest sources if it detects a snapshot dependency across (even non-nested!) modules/projects.
If I were able to set up global Maven build configurations without having to jin up a dummy parent project, I'd make the switch. IntelliJ has superior support for running and debugging individual JUnit tests and application debugging in general.
I also like the ability to set up a variety of "runners" in IntelliJ and then execute them with a fuzzy find as if I were on the command line.