Seems netbeans cannot work with OpenJDK 10/11 and stops silently shortly after start.
Solution:
uninstall 8.1 from software list and/or remove manual installation from /usr/local
Install OpenJDK 1.8
Download latest 8.2 from netbeans.org.
Install Netbeans 8.2 in current user (aka path /home/youruser). Also install Glassfish/Tomcat in current user. For some reason, installation in /usr/local does fail.
During installation, point your java jdk to /usr/lib/jvm/openjdk-1.8.
Please note that editing the /etc/netbeans.conf file as indicated by some sites is not resolving the issue.