How to Install Eclipse IDE on Ubuntu 18.04

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Ubuntu Install Eclipse IDE

Eclipse is the most widely used Java integrated development environment (IDE). It is extensible via plugins, and it can also be used for development in other programming languages such as C++, JavaScript, and PHP .

The Eclipse installation package (version 3.8.1) that is available in the Ubuntu repository is outdated. The easiest way is to install the latest Eclipse IDE on Ubuntu 18.04 is by using the snappy packaging system.

In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to install the latest Eclipse IDE on an Ubuntu 18.04 machine.

Prerequisites

Before continuing with this tutorial, make sure you are logged in as a user with sudo privileges .

Installing Eclipse

At the time of writing this article, the latest stable version of Eclipse is Eclipse 2019-03.

To install Eclipse on your Ubuntu system, follow these steps:

  1. Eclipse is a Java-based application and it requires a Java runtime environment (JRE) to be installed in order to run. Install the default OpenJDK package with:

    sudo apt install default-jre
  2. Download and install the Eclipse snap package on your system, by typing:

    sudo snap install --classic eclipse

    On successful installation of Eclipse, you should see the following output:

    eclipse 2019-03 from Snapcrafters installed

Starting Eclipse

Now that Eclipse is installed on your Ubuntu system you can start it by clicking on the Eclipse icon (Activities -> Eclipse):

Ubuntu Eclipse Start

When you start Eclipse for the first time, a window like the following will appear asking you to select a Workspace directory:

Ubuntu Eclipse Workspace

The default directory should be fine. Click Launch to proceed:

Ubuntu Eclipse Welcome

Conclusion

You have learned how to install Eclipse on your Ubuntu 18.04 machine. You can now start working on your Java project.

To find more information about how to get started with Eclipse visit the Eclipse documentation page.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment below.