newbie question - is netbeans the best portal development tool on solaris

I am looking to create a simple portal to help me prototype an
application I'm developing.

The portal is for to monitor a software development project and would
have bug metrics, lab info, schedule, roles&responsibilities.....etc
all of which would be dynamic and up-to-date. I ave all the back-end
data files to grab the data, its just its display that I'm having
trouble with

So first off - is netbeans the best product to try this at (I am Sun
solaris user so windows tool is not an option)

If so can someone recommend a really good textbook off amazon I can
get (or good online docs)....

Does anyone know where there are some good examples of portals so I
can see whats out there (have no artistic touch to create something
visually exciting....am software engineer after all)

thanks
terry

.