In our industry it sometimes happens that a major project stands at a crossroads. Sometimes it is because of its own choosing, and sometimes it is not. Over the years the NetBeans project was under the direct supervision of different corporate entities. And now the decision has been made to place it under the direct supervision of Apache.
What does this mean to you? If you are developer using NetBeans it probably does not mean much as you will still download and install it just like you were used to.
So why this decision then? Well, as a previous NetBeans contributor I can say that contributing to NetBeans was very straightforward, but determining the overall direction of the project itself was not possible.
So from my perspective this is where the most important aspect of this change will show itself. Where will the project go, what will it do in 1 year, 2 years or even 5 years from now? That is now not merely a decision of the corporate entity, but it is now the decision of the Apache NetBeans PMC. This includes where the project goes, who can contribute, etc. For a good introduction see http://www.apache.org/dev/pmc.html.
So the governance of the entire project is now going to be the responsibility of the PMC members. I wish them luck and I hope to see many good things come out of this!
Posted September 13, 2016