Working with Netbeans and ubuntu

1) Download JDK example: jdk1.6.0-beta2.bin into your home folder.

2) In terminal run : ./jdk1.6.0-beta2.bin
(make sure to chmod +x so that it can actually run)
result : you will get a folder in home such as jdk1.6.0/

3) In terminal run : sudo mv jdk1.6.0 /opt
result : you just moved jdk1.6.0 into /opt folder.
So now /opt/jdk1.6.0 is the location of the jdk.

4) In terminal run : sudo rm /usr/bin/java
result: remove any link that is in your system path for java.
So you can replace it with the jdk in /opt

5) In terminal run : sudo ln -s /opt/jdk1.6.0/jre/bin/java /usr/bin
result : made a link to your new jdk.
So that it is easy to be found by other programs

6) Dowload the latest snapshot of netbeans ex. nebeans 6.0

7) In terminal run : ./nebeans6.0-xxxx.bin
result : netbeans installer will find you jdk and will use it
for installation of the IDE.
At the end of installation you should have an icon on your desktop
for nebeans that uses java JDK that you placed in your /opt/jdk1.6.0 folder.

In netbeans folder structure you can find a file ~/netbeans6/etc/netbeans.conf
in there you can also point to a jdk of your choosing
like this : netbeans_jdkhome="/opt/jdk1.6.0"