NetBeans Java IDE Might Become An Apache Incubator Project

A proposal posted today is looking to shift the NetBeans integrated development environment from being an Oracle project to one within the Apache incubator space.

Geertjan Wielenga, an Oracle employee who serves as the project manager for Oracle JET and NetBeans, posted a proposal today looking to offload NetBeans from being the open-source IDE maintained at Oracle to becoming "Apache NetBeans."

Oracle is looking to offload NetBeans onto the Apache Foundation in an attempt to get more contributors to the project with Oracle right now being responsible for most of the work. From the proposal, "Although NetBeans is already open source, moving it to a neutral place like Apache, with its strong governance model, is expected to help get more contributions from various organizations...At the same time, though Oracle will relinquish its control over NetBeans, individual contributors from Oracle are expected to continue contributing to NetBeans after it has been contributed to Apache, together with individual contributors from other organizations, as well as self-employed individual contributors...The specific reason for moving to Apache is to expand the diversity of contributors and to increase the level of meritocracy in NetBeans."

The full proposal can be read here. This proposal comes just days after the proposal to retire Apache OpenOffice, another former Sun/Oracle software product.

Is Apache becoming little more than a dumping ground for old software projects by some companies? The current Apache Incubator list can be found here. Are you still using NetBeans as an IDE in 2016? Share your thoughts in the forums.