Marit van Dijk and Anton Arhipov: 25 Years of IntelliJ IDEA

This is the second in a short series of speaker profiles for JavaOne 2026 in Redwood Shores, California, March 17-19. Get early bird pricing until February 9, and for a limited time, take advantage of a $100 discount by using this code at checkout: J12026IJN100.

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In this conversation, Jim Grisanzio from Java Developer Relations talks with developer advocates Marit van Dijk and Anton Arhipov from JetBrains about the 25th anniversary of IntelliJ IDEA, the latest features of the IDE, Anton's upcoming session at JavaOne in March, and their perspectives on JavaOne as the premier conference for Java developers.

25 Years of IntelliJ IDEA

Just as Java turned 30 this year, IntelliJ IDEA is now 25 years young! Not every technology survives that long, and even fewer thrive while doing it. But both Java and IntelliJ IDEA are doing just that. The secret to this longevity for IntelliJ IDEA, according to Marit van Dijk and Anton Arhipov, comes down to something simple but demanding — staying current with the Java ecosystem and engaging the massive Java development community around the world. The main reason for their success is the huge effort engineered into the platform to produce the technologies that developers need while at the same time staying with all the bleeding edge stuff happening inside the Java community.

This commitment reaches beyond just supporting new Java versions. The IntelliJ IDEA team works on preview features even though specifications sometimes change during the preview process. When Oracle moved to a six-month release cycle for OpenJDK about eight years ago, IntelliJ adapted smoothly since their teams were already involved with the OpenJDK community. Marit says that new release cycle actually streamlined their work. They already knew about preview features and could start developing support upfront, not at the very last moment. This let them iterate alongside the community rather than chasing after it.

The company also collaborates directly with other community members — such as framework developers, build tool teams at Maven and Gradle, and even Google — to implement best practices straight into the IDE. Maven 4 is not even released yet, but IntelliJ already has support ready with migration features to help developers make the transition. Anton says that this effort means that support is not only working with the new version of a technology but also being smart about how you use it. The IDE catches outdated patterns and deprecated APIs and also offers quick fixes to migrate code with a single keystroke.

First and Lasting Impressions

Both Marit and Anton started working at JetBrains years after they had already become devoted IntelliJ users. Their first impressions of the IDE moved them deeply and remain with them today.

For Anton, his first reaction to using IntelliJ IDEA was immediate. “In one word, wow, this is smart. This is an IDE that understands code.”  That intelligence in the software became the foundation of his relationship with the technology.

Marit had a similar experience when she switched to IntelliJ IDEA. She had used other IDEs before and they were perfectly fine, but IntelliJ seemed different. "I found that it was actively helpful with the code inspections and quick fixes and helping me when my code didn't compile or preventing me from making mistakes. And I was sad that I didn't switch earlier, like years earlier. And I've been raving about it ever since. And now they pay me to do that. So, you know, everybody wins."

AI and the Future of Development

As usual in these conversation, we turned to artificial intelligence and its growing role in software development. Anton will explore this topic in depth at his JavaOne session titled "Spec-Driven Development With AI Agents: From High-Level Requirements to Working Software.” Everyone knows that the AI landscape is changing fast, but things are actually getting simpler, Anton says. Developers can now get better results with less effort and less complex workflows using AI agents. Models are improving at guessing developer intent and reducing the need for careful constraint-heavy prompting.

But Anton sets realistic expectations about AI. When asked whether his session targets junior or senior developers, he says that "we are all juniors in this regard." The field is so new that nobody can claim years of expertise with AI development tools.

Marit emphasizes another crucial principle about AI-generated code. “You are still responsible for the code," whether you write it or an agent writes it. It has your name on it. AI does not diminish developer accountability or the need for developers to remain highly skilled in their craft.

Anton adds another dimension about integrating AI with development tools. "AI without the IDE is kind of unreliable, but the IDE without AI is unproductive." The key, he says, is to fuse these things together leveraging the benefits of both for better productivity. The context the IDE provides and its understanding of your project structure and dependencies makes AI suggestions more relevant and actionable.

JavaOne: Where the Community Comes Together

Anton will be presenting at JavaOne 2026 in March, and both he and Marit shared their perspectives on what makes the conference special.

For Marit, JavaOne has always been unique. The "who's who of Java" will be there, she says. Last year's conference-ending "Meet the Architects" panel particularly stood out. The audience could ask Oracle Java architects basically everything about Java for over an hour. This kind of access to the core engineers building and shaping the future of the language is something you would not normally get at any other conference.

Anton shares his view that JavaOne has always been the conference to get all the news about Java. He has always viewed the event as the place where you get condensed information about what's going on with Java all in one place — the language, the platform, the standards, the frameworks, and the community.

Community and Looking Forward

Marit and Anton maintain close relationships with the developer community through conferences and Java User Groups. Marit says that they have many JUGs in the Netherlands, and many of them invite her to come and speak at their meetups throughout the year. Also, when they travel somewhere for a conference, they look for opportunities to combine that trip with local JUGs to speak there and connect with people. This direct engagement with the open Java community lets Marit and Anton talk to developers directly, see how they can help them better, understand what developers are struggling with, and take that feedback back to the engineering teams. The same authenticity extends to how JetBrains approaches IntelliJ development. The engineering team maintains close relationships with framework developers and library maintainers and OpenJDK to ensure that when new versions release, IntelliJ users have good support from day one.

As IntelliJ IDEA celebrates 25 years, the development continues. They keep releasing new features with every version: the Spring Debugger that helps developers understand their Spring projects at runtime, Command Completion that enables developers to perform commands without memorizing shortcuts, and more. The anniversary celebrations for the teams have included parties with cakes featuring old logos, a game plugin that lets developers play video games while AI generates their code, and social media campaigns engaging the global community. For developers curious about IntelliJ IDEA, Marit and Anton encourage people to subscribe to the JetBrains YouTube channel where they regularly produce videos explaining new features.

This 25-year milestone represents more than just history. It represents an ongoing commitment to understand code, support developers, build the Java community, and evolve alongside the entire ecosystem. This pattern is pervasive among Java developers and also the many companies offering developers advanced tools. The smart IDE that so impressed Anton and Marit years ago continues to get smarter — right along with many other tools and technologies that are growing as a result of the Java platform itself.

Anton Arhipov: X , BlueSky, Linkedin

Marit van Dijk: Website, Linkedin, BlueSky, X 

Jim Grisanzio: X, Linkedin

Duke's Corner Java Podcast: Libsyn

Oracle Java Developer Relations: Inside.java, Dev.Java, Learn.java

Specific Topics Discussed: IntelliJ IDEA 25th Birthday, The Java Dukes, What's new in IntelliJ IDEA 2025.3, Spring Debugger, Command Completion