NetBeans is the second Java IDE I used (the first one was JBuilder, but it wasn't free so I "evaluated" it). NetBeans was batteries-included but was slow and more towards desktop (Swing) development. Eclipse won, hands down. However, I got frustrated installing plugins and making them work together, so I switched to IntelliJ and never looked back. VSCode got the Eclipse vibes but I guess I'm too old for this.
Netbeans is a good IDE for PHP. Many thanks to Junichi, the maintainer and developer of the PHP module for many years.<p>I don't know of any decent open-source alternative for PHP. Last time I checked, at spring 2024 IIRC, the various LSP for PHP were either incomplete or premium-limited. IMO, a decent IDE should at least have completion and navigation features (Go to declaration, Find usage, Show documentation, Show arguments, ...).<p>On the proprietary side, JetBrains is a well-known alternative. I tried it some times ago and wasn't convinced. Its refactoring features are much better than Netbeans', but I had recurring LSP error messages and a few small annoyances.
I only use it to develop in C for the Raspberry Pi Zero W since VS Code doesn't work with it. While it's great they keep it updated the C tools haven't been touched in a long while and you have to add the repository for them to each new version. At least they still work, so it could be worse.
I always favored NetBeans because it is open-source and seemed less cluttered than Eclipse, and anyway I don't use a ton of advanced IDE features; I mostly do personal projects. I picked it up again recently because it's the default IDE for JMonkeyEngine.<p>But out of the box at least, the editing experience feels quite primitive. It only offers completion candidates after the dot, and I was spending too much time adjusting indentation manually, because after the initial auto-indent, <tab> doesn't cycle through indentation levels but just inserts tabs. NetBeans may support those features, so feel free to correct.
Only product in my orbit that is based on NetBeans is Microchip's MPLAB X IDE, but it hasn't been updated in over a year. I'm starting to wonder if they are having issues or will abandon it for VS Code.<p><a href="https://www.microchip.com/en-us/tools-resources/develop/mplab-x-ide#tabs" rel="nofollow">https://www.microchip.com/en-us/tools-resources/develop/mpla...</a>
Anyone tried using NB for JavaScript projects (not necessarily web projects)? I remember having good vi key bindings (basically by using nvi as replacement editor component) was a highlight, but I guess that isn't working anymore or is it?
A long time ago, I used NetBeans for everything, including Ruby.<p>At some point, the Ruby plugin was killed off though. Anyone know if they brought it back?