# Foojay Podcast #91: 25 Years of IntelliJ IDEA: The IDE That Grew Up With Java

> In this Foojay Podcast, we're celebrating a major milestone in Java development history: 25 years of IntelliJ IDEA. Think about it: IntelliJ IDEA launched…

- URL: https://foojay.io/today/foojay-podcast-91/
- Published: 2026-03-02
- Authors: Frank Delporte, Marit van Dijk
- Categories: Developer Tools, IntelliJ IDEA, Podcast


In this Foojay Podcast, we're celebrating a major milestone in Java development history: 25 years of IntelliJ IDEA.

Think about it: IntelliJ IDEA launched in 2000, and since then, it has become the go-to IDE for millions of Java developers worldwide. From its revolutionary code completion and refactoring tools to AI-powered features and the recent unified Community and Ultimate release, IntelliJ has shaped how we write Java, and keeps reinventing itself to stay ahead.

For this episode, I'm joined by three people from the JetBrains team who know this story inside and out. Marit van Dijk, developer advocate and contributor to the Foojay community. Anton Arhipov, also a developer advocate at JetBrains. And Dmitry Jemerov, who has been part of the IntelliJ IDEA story for a very long time.

## YouTube

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## Podcast Apps

You can listen and subscribe to the Foojay Podcast on:

* [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/6CpTfgn9LirzJGAtc4ICdQ)
* [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/be/podcast/foojay-io-the-friends-of-openjdk/id1652281304)
* And most others...

## Guests

* Marit van Dijk
  * <https://foojay.io/today/author/marit-van-dijk/>
  * <https://www.linkedin.com/in/maritvandijk/>
  * <https://mastodon.social/@maritvandijk>
* Anton Arhipov
  * <https://www.linkedin.com/in/antonarhipov/>
* Dmitry Jemerov
  * <https://www.linkedin.com/in/dmitry-jemerov-3a59b43a5/>

## Links

* JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA:
  * [Website](http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/)
  * [Documentation](http://www.jetbrains.com/help/idea/)
  * [Blog](http://blog.jetbrains.com/idea/)
  * [YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/intellijidea)
  * [LinkedIn](http://www.linkedin.com/showcase/intellijidea)
  * [Bluesky](https://bsky.app/profile/intellijidea.com)
  * [Twitter](https://twitter.com/intellijidea)
* [Foojay Podcast #81: Maven 4 – The Future of Java Build Automation](https://foojay.io/today/foojay-podcast-81/)
* [Command completion: IntelliJ IDEA with less shortcuts](https://foojay.io/today/command-completion-intellij-idea/)
* [Video: IntelliJ IDEA: The Documentary \| \[OFFICIAL TRAILER\] \| Coming March 5th](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwMXi6tDzLE)
* [Introducing Mellum: JetBrains' New LLM Built for Developers](https://blog.jetbrains.com/blog/2024/10/22/introducing-mellum-jetbrains-new-llm-built-for-developers/)
* [Mellum: Explore code-intelligent large language models for IDEs, AI assistants, research, and education](https://www.jetbrains.com/mellum/)
* [Birthday game website](https://www.jetbrains.com/lp/intellij-idea-25/)
* [Game plugin in IntelliJ IDEA](https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/29801-ide-survivors)
* [You're Invited to IntelliJ IDEA Conf 2025!](https://foojay.io/today/youre-invited-to-intellij-idea-conf-2025/)
* [The Unified IntelliJ IDEA: More Free Features, a Better Experience, Smoother Flow](https://blog.jetbrains.com/idea/2025/12/intellij-idea-unified-release/)
* [Video: Troubleshooting Spring Boot Applications with the Spring Debugger](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWoivKnqsyo)
* [Spring Debugger plugin](https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/25302-spring-debugger)
* [Plugin for IntelliJ IDEA (and other IDEs) created by Frank: Recent Projects Organized](https://webtechie.be/post/2025-09-18-jetbrains-intellijidea-plugin-recent-project-organizer/)

## Content

00:00 Introduction of topic and guests  

01:36 Now JetBrains started  

02:31 Licensed software in an open-source world  

06:37 Other JetBrains IDEs  

07:46 Why Kotlin was created  

08:50 The challenge of maintaining all the tools  

10:36 How the guests joined JetBrains  

14:03 IntelliJ versus IntelliJ IDEA, history of the name  

15:10 Most important ongoing changes in IDEs  

17:55 Unified distribution of IntelliJ IDEA and the history of the open-source version  

21:28 The number of people at JetBrains  

23:31 the "business model" behind Kotlin  

24:39 The impact of AI, LLM, Chat interfaces,...  

35:49 Upcoming evolutions in IntelliJ IDEA  

38:07 About shortcuts and the many features and plugins in IntelliJ IDEA  

46:36 Announcements: IntelliJ IDEA Conf 2026 and Documentary Trailer  

48:35 The IntelliJ IDEA Birthday Game  

49:24 Conclusions