Apache NetBeans
By the Apache Software Foundation
Apache NetBeans is a free, open-source integrated development environment (IDE) primarily for Java, PHP, and HTML5/JavaScript development, with strong built-in support for Maven, Ant, and Gradle projects.
Definition
Apache NetBeans is a free, open-source integrated development environment (IDE) primarily for Java, PHP, and HTML5/JavaScript development, with strong built-in support for Maven, Ant, and Gradle projects.
Overview
NetBeans has one of the longest histories among modern IDEs, tracing back to a student project in the Czech Republic in the mid-1990s that was later commercialized, acquired by Sun Microsystems, and eventually passed to Oracle when Oracle acquired Sun. In 2016 Oracle donated NetBeans to the Apache Software Foundation, where it became a top-level project as Apache NetBeans. NetBeans ships with modules for editing, debugging, and profiling Java (including Java EE and Swing GUI development), as well as support for PHP, C/C++, and web technologies. It has native, no-plugin-required awareness of Apache Maven and Gradle build files, so importing an existing project is usually a matter of opening its pom.xml or build.gradle. Compared with lighter, extension-driven editors like VS Code, NetBeans behaves more like a traditional, batteries-included IDE in the same category as Eclipse IDE. While newer JavaScript- and cloud-native-focused editors have captured much of the general developer population, NetBeans remains a solid, free choice for teams doing traditional enterprise Java or Swing desktop development.
Key Features
- Native support for Maven, Ant, and Gradle projects out of the box
- Integrated debugger and profiler for Java applications
- Swing and JavaFX GUI builder tools
- Multi-language support including Java, PHP, C/C++, and HTML5
- Built-in Git and Subversion version control integration
- Free and open source under the Apache License 2.0
- Extensible plugin ecosystem