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Make Netbeans look great on Ubuntu 12.04

posted 31-Jul-2012 | 10 comments | , , , , , ,

Up until today I was convinced that developing with a Java IDE under Linux was synonym of looking all day at a really ugly and disturbing set of widgets thrown on my screen by a 6 year old. But after upgrading my Netbeans installation to 7.2 I decided to do another Google search about it and voila…

I found Tonny Kohars blog with a working solution!

Combining the new Netbeans 7.2 with Ubuntu 12.04 (using Unity and the default Ambience theme) and the Ayatana plugin worked just fine.

My Netbeans 7.2 installation with the Ayatana plugin


To install the plugin just follow this steps after you have Netbeans 7.2 installed (the plugin should work with previous versions but honestly I didn’t try it):

  1. From the main Netbeans menu, open Tools > Plugins
  2. Select the Settings tab and press “Add”
    • Name: Java Ayatana
    • URL: http://java-swing-ayatana.googlecode.com/files/netbeans-catalog.xml
  3. Select the Available Plugins tab and press “Check for Updates”
  4. Check the “Java Ayatana” plugin and press “Install”
  5. Restart Netbeans

I know it still looks better on Mac OSX, but this is an order of magnitude better than using the Java Metal L&F, isn’t it?

  • Yamitatsu

    Awesome thank you :)

  • Lano

    What is the font used on your system?

  • http://ricardozuasti.com/ Ricardo Zuasti

    I’m using the Droid Sans family, the apt package is named fonts-droid or ttf-droid depending on the Ubuntu version.

  • Ajeet Singh

    I am using CentOS and surely try this plugin on this platform also. Thanks!

  • Pingback: Unity’s globales Menü mit Netbeans nutzen

  • zach

    works in netbeans7.0…great work!!

  • http://www.facebook.com/peter.bradley.9659 Peter Bradley

    Nope. Nothing happens for me (Ubuntu 12.04 LTS). Followed the instructions. All seemed to go well. Restarted NB. No difference and the plugin no longer appear anywhere in the plugins list even after doing another update (although it was there after doing the first update following adding the URL). >>sigh<< I guess I'll just have to continue using LXDE for Netbeans to look halfway decent.

  • http://ricardozuasti.com/ Ricardo Zuasti

    Peter, are you using the GTK+ Java LAF? You can force it from the netbeans configuration files if you want.

    Also check your Netbeans is version 7+ and that your are using Java 7+.

    rgds,
    r.

  • http://www.facebook.com/peter.bradley.9659 Peter Bradley

    Ubuntu 12.04LTS Unity interface and Netbeans 7.2.1 (installed in my own filespace). I have the Oracle JDK installed in my own filespace and openJDK installed globally. However I use the Oracle JDK with Netbeans as the NB debugger doesn’t appear to like open JDK.

    So I guess I’m using GTK+, since I think that’s what Unity uses??. But I don’t know what you mean by Java LAF, I’m afraid.

  • Dave Nicolette

    Apparently this randomly works on some systems and not on others. On a fresh install of Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit with all updates applied and no other applications installed besides NetBeans 7.2.1, the plugin has absolutely no effect whatsoever.