unusable dark menu bar in netbeans 7.1.2 running on ubuntu 12.04

If you installed Netbeans IDE on the current Ubuntu Version 12.04 LTS and you cannot find the menubar, this is because it has a dark theme with dark fonts.
This is how to fix it:

locate the "netbeans.conf" file. Usually this file can be found under "<netbeans-location>/etc" .
In this file there should be a line starting with "netbeans_default_options".
Add the following argument to it: --laf Metal


Finally restart the netbeans IDE.