Before you distribute a rich-client application, you need to consider whether you want to leave it resembling NetBeans. For example, your rich-client application uses the NetBeans splash screen by default. Branding, the final stage before creating distribution packages, involves making decisions such as what the splash screen should look like and whether the application will include a progress bar during startup. In the module suite project's Project Properties dialog box, you define such settings, as described in Branding a Rich-Client Application.
While branding, also consider whether your rich-client application needs all the modules that the IDE uses. For example, if your rich-client application is not an editor, you will not need the modules that relate to editor functionality. Similarly, it is unlikely that all of the IDE's menu items and toolbar buttons are needed by your application.
Once a rich-client application is branded, you can distribute it over the web as a web-startable JNLP application. Alternatively, you can distribute the ZIP file. See Building a JNLP Application and Building a ZIP Distribution for details. Updates to the modules that make up a rich-client application can be distributed via the Update Center.