Are you trying to figure out how to install VSCodium on Ubuntu OS? Here’s a guide that gives you all the details you need.
VSCodium is a free, open-source fork of Microsoft VS Code editor. As the Microsoft VSCode downloaded version is unavailable under the FLOSS license and contains telemetry tracking, the VSCodium is initiated to address this issue. We will discuss various approaches to the installation of VSCodium on Ubuntu. Mac users can install the brew package manager on their platform, and Windows users may have different options.
Let’s start with a brief introduction to VSCodium and its significant features. Then, various installation approaches are presented, followed by uninstallation steps.
Introduction to VSCodium
VSCodium is a community-driven, freely-licensed binary distribution of Microsoft VSCode editor. The following are the significant features of this software:
- The source code is available on Github under the MIT license.
- Support for debugging and syntax highlighting is available.
- Support for Intellisense and intelligent code refactoring is provided.
- The Git version controlling support is embedded in the software.
- As a user, you can change the default theme and offer new shortcuts to the keyboard.
- You can also specify your preferences, such as font size and color.
- The software can be extended via a range of plugins.
Why is a separate distribution of VSCode required?
Why is there a need for a separate fork of VSCode to create a new project with the name VSCodium?
The Microsoft VSCode is distributed under an MIT license and, therefore, open source. However, the version available for download is not licensed under a free, open-source license. In addition, it contains telemetry tracking. The open source community wanted to make the produced licensed under MIT license. Therefore, they created a separate fork of the original VSCode, built the product, and uploaded the final binaries over Git Hub.
The final binaries are now licensed under the MIT license, and the telemetry option is also disabled. This is the reason why a separate project VSCodium, has been initiated.
We will now discuss the various ways of installation of VSCodium:
- It can be installed via snapd package manager.
- You can also use apt for installation of VSCodium.
Each of the above approaches for installation is discussed next.
Installation of VSCodium via snap
The first approach to install VSCodium is via snap. It is available as a prepackaged version on all versions of Linux. Simply install VSCodium by opening your terminal and typing the following command:
$sudo snap install codium –classic
Installation of VSCodium via apt package manager
You can also install VSCodium via the apt package manager. Follow the steps below to install VSCodium.
Update your system
First, you should update your system. You can update your system by executing the following command on your terminal:
$sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
Add VSCodium GPG key
Now, we will add a VSCodium CPG key. This can be used to authenticate that the package is the same as that published by developers. So, use the following command to add CPG key:
$wget -qO - https://gitlab.com/paulcarroty/vscodium-deb-rpm-repo/raw/master/pub.gpg | gpg --dearmor | sudo dd of=/usr/share/keyrings/vscodium-archive-keyring.gpg
Add the repository
The default repository of Ubuntu doesn’t contain the VSCodium. We need to add the repository manually to install the VSCodium. Type the following command on your terminal:
$echo 'deb [ signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/vscodium-archive-keyring.gpg ] https://download.vscodium.com/debs vscodium main' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscodium.list
Now, rerun the following command:
$sudo apt update
Install VSCodium
So, we have set up the repository. We can now use the apt package manager to install VSCodium. Use the command below to install:
$sudo apt install codium
Start the VSCodium editor
Now, to run the VSCodium editor, we can use different approaches.
Run VSCodium using the Application Launcher
Go to Application Launcher and search for VSCodium. Click on VSCodium to launch the application, as shown below.
The application will start as shown below:
Run VSCodium using Snap
Snap users can launch VSCodium using the following command:
$sudo snap run codium
Removing the VSCodium
You should follow different steps depending on how you installed the VSCodium. Follow the steps below to remove VSCodium.
Removing VSCodium using snap method
If you have installed VSCodium using snap, you can run the command below to remove VSCodium:
$sudo snap remove --purge codium
Remove VSCodium using apt method
Alternatively, you can remove the VSCodium using apt via using the following command:
$sudo apt autoremove codium --purge -y
In this article, we have discussed the installation instructions of VSCodium. It is a freely available under an MIT license and is a fork of Microsoft VSCode. We briefly discussed the significant features of VSCodium. The software can be installed via snapd, and alternatively, you can use the apt package manager for installation. We also discussed how the software could be uninstalled.
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