Install NetBeans IDE on Ubuntu 20.04

In this tutorial, we will cover how to install NetBeans IDE on Ubuntu 20.04. NetBeans IDE is a free and open source extensible Java IDE (Integrated Development Environment) that enable software developers to quickly and easily develop Java desktop, Java EE, and web applications, as well as HTML5 applications with HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. The IDE also provides a great set of tools for PHP, Ruby and C/C++ developers.

Installing NetBeans IDE on Ubuntu 20.04

Prerequisites

Install Java Development Kit on Ubuntu 20.04

In order to run NetBeans IDE, you need to have installed Java Development Kit version 8 or above. In this guide, we use Java 11, which is the default available version on Ubuntu 20.04 main repos.

apt update

apt install default-jdk

To verify the version of the installed Java development kit, run the command below;

java -version

openjdk version "11.0.9.1" 2020-11-04
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 11.0.9.1+1-Ubuntu-0ubuntu1.20.04)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 11.0.9.1+1-Ubuntu-0ubuntu1.20.04, mixed mode, sharing)

Installing NetBeans IDE on Ubuntu

There are different methods in which you can install NetBeans IDE on Ubuntu. These include;

• Install NetBeans from default Ubuntu repos using APT package manager
• Install NetBeans on Ubuntu using NetBeans installer script
• Install NetBeans from Snaps

Install NetBeans from default Ubuntu repos using APT package manager

NetBeans package is provided by the default Ubuntu 20.04 Universe repos and as much as NetBeans IDE can be installed from the default Ubuntu 20.04 universe repos, the version provided by these sources lists is not up to date. As of this writing, the current latest release version of NetBean is v12.2.

The Universe repos provides NetBeans 10.0 as of this writing.

apt-cache policy netbeans

netbeans:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 10.0-3ubuntu3
  Version table:
     10.0-3ubuntu3 500
        500 http://ke.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal/universe amd64 Packages
        500 http://ke.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal/universe i386 Packages

If however you want to take this easy way, you can simply execute the command below to install NetBeans on Ubuntu 20.04 from Universe repos using APT package manager.

apt install netbeans

If you want to install the latest version of NetBeans, you can check the following installation methods.

Install NetBeans on Ubuntu using NetBeans installer script

NetBeans provides a script that makes it installation easier. Navigate to Apache NetBeans downloads page and grab the installer script for Linux. You can simply run the command below to download it (for version 12.2).

wget https://downloads.apache.org/netbeans/netbeans/12.2/Apache-NetBeans-12.2-bin-linux-x64.sh

Once download, execute it as follows;

sudo sh Apache-NetBeans-12.2-bin-linux-x64.sh 

The script will launch the NetBeans installer.

If you want, you can customize your installation, otherwise, click Next to proceed.

Accept the EULA and proceed.

Choose the installation path for your NetBeans application. Otherwise, click next to accept the default.

Check the installation summary and install NetBeans on Ubuntu 20.04.

Once the installation is done, click Finish to close the installation wizard.

Netbeans should be installed on your Ubuntu 20.04 system.

Install NetBeans from Snaps

If you need to get the latest version of NetBeans installed and running on Ubuntu 20.04, you can install it from snaps using the snap package manager.

On Ubuntu 20.04, Snapd is already installed and enabled;

snap version

snap    2.48+20.04
snapd   2.48+20.04
series  16
ubuntu  20.04
kernel  5.4.0-58-generic

Thus, ensure your system package cache is up-to-date.

apt update

Next, install NetBeans using snap package manager;

sudo snap install netbeans --classic

Running NetBeans on Ubuntu 20.04

In all the methods, once the installation is done, NetBeans should now be available among your system applications.

You can thus just click it to launch it and start using it.

And that brings us to the end of our simple tutorial on how to install NetBeans on Ubuntu 20.04.

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