It depends on what kind of GUI you are creating. You might use just one or two of the simple layouts, or you might need to reach for a more advanced layout. My overall layout manager use would probably break down to something like this, although it would vary based on the project:
- 65% GridBagLayout - The one layout that will get it done, no matter what you need to do.
- 15% Box/BoxLayout - Great for quickly & easily sticking a couple components together.
- 12% BorderLayout - Good for attaching a button panel or info panel to a content panel. I almost always use it to add content to a JFrame.
- 3% FlowLayout - Useful for button panels, but not much else.
- 3% CardLayout - Mostly useful in programs that display different content panels for different operational modes.
- 2% Other layouts - It's very rare that I need anything else, but occasionally one of the other layouts comes in handy.
Once you get the hang of GridBagLayout, it's not that bad to write initially, but it's still not pretty to work with, or to debug later on. I tried MiGLayout for something recently and was disappointed to find that the MiGLayout actually ended up being more complicated to use than the GridBagLayout in that particular case.
Some people try to avoid GridBagLayout like the plague; but the truth is, there are some things that no combination of simple layouts will be able to handle. It's fine to split a GUI into panels for different logical sections, but I think if you're creating a whole bunch of unnecessary extra nested panels just for the purpose of positioning components, you clearly need to learn how to use a GridBagLayout (or other similarly advanced layout, like MiGLayout). You might get your GUI to look okay with a nasty mess of nested BorderLayouts and GridLayouts and BoxLayouts, but as soon as someone starts resizing your application windows and dialogs to be either smaller or larger than you originally designed them, your GUI will probably look horrible and your customers will start to form a negative opinion about your product since you couldn't get such a simple thing right.
Update: I've been using WindowBuilder in Eclipse for a while now, and it greatly simplifies working with many layouts, especially GridBagLayout. I used to spend a lot of time writing layouts by hand, but with WindowBuilder or probably any similarly advanced visual editor, you can create the layouts in much less time.
