As an easy way to get started with Clojure, I can highly recommend
Leiningen (at least for Mac / Linux - I'm not sure how good the experience is on Windows). You download one simple shell script (lein), run "lein new myprojectname" to create a folder (myprojectname) that is setup for Clojure, cd into that folder and type "lein deps" and everything is automatically downloaded (to your local
Maven repository) and installed. "lein repl" starts a REPL with the libraries on your classpath. You can edit project.clj to add / update your dependencies (and run "lein deps" again) any time you want.
Yes, the
IDE plugins have all improved lately. I'm only familiar with Eclipse / CounterClockWise which is getting really solid these days.