Apache NetBeans 25

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.

I remember briefly using NetBeans in my high school programming class. Anyone still use it? Is it a good alternative to corporate-backed IDEs?

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&#x27;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&#x27;t convinced. Its refactoring features are much better than Netbeans&#x27;, 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&#x27;t work with it. While it&#x27;s great they keep it updated the C tools haven&#x27;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&#x27;t use a ton of advanced IDE features; I mostly do personal projects. I picked it up again recently because it&#x27;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, &lt;tab&gt; doesn&#x27;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&#x27;s MPLAB X IDE, but it hasn&#x27;t been updated in over a year. I&#x27;m starting to wonder if they are having issues or will abandon it for VS Code.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.microchip.com&#x2F;en-us&#x2F;tools-resources&#x2F;develop&#x2F;mplab-x-ide#tabs" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.microchip.com&#x2F;en-us&#x2F;tools-resources&#x2F;develop&#x2F;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&#x27;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?