IntelliJ IDEA vs. Java vs. JetBrains Fleet vs. distcc Comparison Chart

The Java™ Programming Language is a general-purpose, concurrent, strongly typed, class-based object-oriented language. It is normally compiled to the bytecode instruction set and binary format defined in the Java Virtual Machine Specification. In the Java programming language, all source code is first written in plain text files ending with the .java extension. Those source files are then compiled into .class files by the javac compiler. A .class file does not contain code that is native to your processor; it instead contains bytecodes — the machine language of the Java Virtual Machine1 (Java VM). The java launcher tool then runs your application with an instance of the Java Virtual Machine.

Distcc is a distributed compilation system that accelerates C, C++, Objective-C, and Fortran builds by offloading compile jobs across multiple networked machines. It integrates seamlessly with GCC and Clang toolchains, transparently intercepting compiler calls and redistributing them to remote daemons while preserving optimization flags, include paths, and dependency tracking. Its client-server architecture features a lightweight listener that manages job queues, prioritizes local compilation when needed, and automatically detects available hosts via simple configuration or DNS. Distcc supports cross-compilation environments, SSH tunneling for secure clusters, blacklisting of unreliable servers, and integration with build systems like Make, CMake and Ninja. Monitoring tools provide real-time statistics on job distribution and throughput, and compatibility with compilation databases (compdb) enables granular control over distributed workloads.