 <p>Yes, you will need a 64 bit JVM to utilize all your memory. I am not up to date with what you can get for Windows so I will let someone else answer that.</p> <p>However, I think the main reason why you can't find a 64 bit netbeans is that it is 100% pure java and architecture independent. Eclipse provides an alternative GUI framework with a more native look and feel (SWT) and uses it for the development environment itself. Once you link to your java app to native libraries you need to distribute the libraries for the correct architecture, hence the architecture dependence of the eclipse distribution (your second item).</p>