Apache NetBeans announced new 25 release a few days ago. Here are the new features and how to install guide for Ubuntu.

NetBeans 25 was released after 2 release candidates. It updated the user interface with another batch of SVG icons for better HiDPI display support, and switched SVG loading routine in ImageUtilities from the Batik library to the much more lightweight JSVG library.

The Gradle build tool in the release now has a new action for running tests in parallel, which can be invoked via command nbls.run.test.parallel.

For Java, v25 updated embedded tomcat from 9.0.71 to 9.0.96, improved Java code completion support for sealed types in switches, and merged jakarta.web.beans and web.beans, which fixed and re-enabled the CI/CD integration of the web.beans tests.

It also added support Nashorn 15.x for JDK >= 15, updated formatter to handle record closing braces correctly, and fixed code-folding for LSP clients that support line-folding only, fixed MacOS tests failures in java.hints and tests failure due to CRLF mismatch on Windows.

NetBeans 25 now supports PHP 8.4. As well, it added PHPStan rule level 10, supported for PHPStan error identifiers, and implemented the ability to run a test method when clicking the run icon in the gutter editor.

For the editor, it fixed NPE during project group creation caused by ergonomics, fixed ugly semantic coloring on CSL languages while editing, and improved parsing of custom @-rules.

Other changes in NetBeans 25 include:

• Two command for integration of Cloud Assets with other VS Code extensions
• Add support for GlassFish 7 up to 7.0.21, GlassFish 8 up to 8.0.0-M9.
• Improve support for Jakarta EE 11.
• Add new ConfigBuilderProvider for GlassFish 7.0.17 and onwards.
• Extend lsp.client with support for DAP.
• Fix license files for Fabric8 library.
• Implement subword completion for SQL editor.
• For more, see the change-log in Github releases page.

How to install Apache NetBeans 25

The Apache NetBeans team offers official packages for Linux, Windows, and macOS. Along with the source archive, there are available to download at the link below:

Ubuntu users may choose the Snap package, which can be installed directly from App Center (or Ubuntu Software for 22.04), though it runs in sandbox environment.

Or, download & install the .deb package that supports Ubuntu 22.04 and higher. For beginners, here’s a step by step guide shows how to install it in Ubuntu.