Installing Netbeans 8.2 on Ubuntu 16.04 or 18.04 for Python functionality

Most Python editors are either not very functional or they take up way too much memory or they are just a pain to install. If you want a simple editor for Python, try Geany. Note that if you use Python 3, you'll have to specify it in Geany's compile and execute commands.

If you are a Netbeans fan, you'll need Java 8 to be able to install Netbeans.

You could either choose to install from this PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install oracle-java8-installer

Or install from the default JDK:
sudo apt-get install openjdk-8*
 
Now open the environment file:
sudo vi /etc/environment

Add the following line to the environment file (for Netbeans to be able to find Java):
JAVA_HOME="/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-oracle"

Save and exit.

source /etc/environment
echo $JAVA_HOME

Now download the Python plugin for Netbeans 8.2. You'll get a zip file. Extract it and open Netbeans.

Goto the Tools > Plugins menu option. 

Select the "Downloaded" tab.
Click "Add Plugins".
Select the folder that you just extracted from the zip file and you'll see many ".nbm" files.
Press Ctrl+A to select all of them and press "Ok".
Click the "Install" button on the bottom left corner. Accept the license terms and click "Install".
Restart Netbeans.

Select File > New Project > Python > Python Project.
You'll see a "Manage" button which you can use to change the python platform to Python 3 if you need to.

Click the "New" button, navigate to /usr/bin/ and you'll find a "python3" file among a lot of files. Select it and click "Ok".
Now select Python 3 and click "Make Default".
Click "Close".
Click "Finish".


That's it! Your Python 3 project is ready to run in Ubuntu with Netbeans.