Netbeans has two major drawbacks as a general IDE. Firstly, it requires Java which for various reasons someone may not want to install. Secondly, it’s a relatively slow.
On the other hand it has some advantages. It is rather stable, it is free, it is compatible with Windows/Linux/MAC OS, it is frequently updated and during the recent years it has improved a lot. But this is true for many other IDEs too. So what makes netbeans different?
Here are some reasons:
- The default user interface and the keyboard shortcuts are quite similar with the shortcuts of IntelliJ IDEA and Android Studio, so by learning them you are adapting to other important IDEs as well. Eclipse and Visual studio have their own sets and are quite different. Of course you can configure shortcuts and perspectives to all IDEs but this is an extra work a beginner should not do at this point. We should focus on writing code while being productive by using a modern IDE.
- Netbeans workflow is more similar to Android Studio and IntelliJ than eclipse.
- Projects do not need to be imported/exported from a computer to another one. This is a timer saver and very important detail of the workflow. Eclipse method of importing projects is bad.
- Projects can be closed and when they are closed they remain invisible. This is a great advantage for beginners because they may not be able to work with multiple workspaces and they don’t know how to fix things when something related to workspace setup goes wrong.
- Perspectives work seamlessly. I find eclipse perspectives intrusive and the way they work absolutely annoying.
- The debug perspective of eclipse is a total mess and the integration with maven is worst than Netbeans and IntelliJ.
Obviously, in the end you should only use whatever IDE you feel comfortable.
Remember, things stated are totally subjective. If you do not feel comfortable with Netbeans, use the IDE of your choice.