Java™ Application Development on Linux - Dator

10.2 NetBeans: The Open Source IDE237was to be Developer 3.0. In October 1999 NetBeans was acquired by Sun Microsystems.After some additional development, Sun released the Forte for JavaCommunity Edition IDE—the same IDE that had been in beta as NetBeansDeveloper 3.0. There had always been interest in going Open Source at Net-Beans. In June 2000, Sun open-sourced the NetBeans IDE; now it can befound at the netbeans.org Web site.10.2.2 Installing NetBeansNetBeans can be downloaded from the netbeans.org Web site. You will wantthe NetBeans “IDE” and not the NetBeans “platform.” The IDE is the fullyfeatured Java development environment. The platform is the underlying coreof NetBeans on top of which one can develop other tools—for example, IDEsfor other languages. Installation of the IDE consists of only three steps:1. Download.2. Install.3. Execute.10.2.2.1 DownloadingThe first step is to get the software downloaded onto your system. From thenetbeans.org Web site, navigate your way to a download of the latest IDE.The prepackaged “installers” might work—but if they fail, you have no informationas to why, and still less as to what you can do about it. We’ll act like“real programmers” and download an archive file. (Here “archive” means acollection of software compressed for easier transmission, not “archive” in thesense of “old documents.”) Click on a link to begin the download(you’ll need to read, review, and accept the license agreement to proceed).The result should be a file on your system named something likeNetBeansIDE-release35.tar.bz2.10.2.2.2 InstallingThe installation consists of three steps: untarring the file, adjusting a parameterin a configuration file, then creating a symbolic link for easy startup. 22. Thanks to John Zoetebier from New Zealand for his contribution on the NetBeans usersmailing list, on which this manual installation procedure is based.