How to Install IntelliJ IDEA on Ubuntu 21.04

Updated: October 16, 2021

IntelliJ IDEA is an intelligent, context-aware IDE for working with Java and other JVM languages like Kotlin, Scala, and Groovy on all sorts of applications. It is developed by JetBrains and is available as an Apache 2 Licensed community edition, and in a proprietary commercial edition. Both can be used for commercial development.

IntelliJ IDEA’s Features:

IntelliJ IDEA is a cross-platform IDE that provides consistent experience on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
It supported many languages: Java, Kotlin, Scala, Groovy, …
It has many plugins that can help you improve productivity.
It provided intelligent code completion
You can run, debug, test your code on IntelliJ IDEA
And many others Features

In this post, I will help you to install IntelliJ IDEA on Ubuntu. It has many ways, but this post will introduce some easiest guide. Let go.

Option 1: Install IntelliJ IDEA from the Software Center Ubuntu

If you are using Ubuntu, I think Software Center Ubuntu should be your first choice. Because it contains many packages (also IntelliJ IDEA), and you can install them very easily.

You need to open Software Center from your Ubuntu to install JetBrains’s product
You just have to search IntelliJ IDEA and it will show the possible results.
Choose the version you want to install on your Ubuntu 21.04 and click the Install button.

Option 2: Install IntelliJ IDEA in Linux using Snap packages

Snaps are containerised software packages that are simple to create and install. They auto-update and are safe to run. And because they bundle their dependencies, they work on all major Linux systems without modification.

Make sure that you have installed Snap on your Linux distribution.
If you don’t know how to install it, follow: Installing snap on Linux

Choose a version of IntelliJ IDEA to install on Linux.

IntelliJ IDEA's version	Installation Steps
Free Version	sudo snap install intellij-idea-ultimate --classic
Ultimate Version	sudo snap install intellij-idea-ultimate --classic
Educational Version	sudo snap install intellij-idea-ultimate --classic

Option 3: Install using the Toolbox App

The JetBrains Toolbox App is the recommended tool to install JetBrains products. You can use it to manage and install different products, including Early Access Program (EAP) and Nightly releases, update and roll back when you need, and easily remove any tool. The Toolbox App maintains a list of all your projects to quickly open any project in the right IDE and version.

To install IntelliJ IDEA using the Toolbox App, please follow:

Download the *.tar.gz from the Toolbox App
Extract the downloaded file to /opt to execute JetBrains Toolbox App
```
sudo tar -xzf jetbrains-toolbox-*****.tar.gz -C /opt
```
Execute this command from /opt/jetbrains-toolbox-*** directory to run App
```
./jetbrains-toolbox
```

Use JetBrains Toolbox to install IntelliJ IDEA on Linux

After running the Toolbox App, it will automatically add the Toolbox App icon to the main menu. Next, choose any IntelliJ IDEA’s version to install on your Ubuntu.

Option 4: Install IntelliJ IDEA on Ubuntu using PPA

Personal Package Archives (PPAs) are software repositories designed for Ubuntu users and are easier to install than other third-party repositories. PPAs are often used to distribute pre-release software so that it can be tested.

You have to open your Terminal Emulator

Add the official mmk2410’s ppa to your Ubuntu:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mmk2410/intellij-idea-community
sudo apt update

You can install IntelliJ IDEA on your Ubuntu now
```
sudo apt install intellij-idea-community
```

Note: only the Community version is available via this PPA, so if you want to install other versions, please consider other ways in this post to install.

To uninstall IntelliJ installed from the above PPA, use these Linux’s commands:

sudo apt remove intellij-idea-community 
sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:mmk2410/intellij-idea-community

Option 5: Install IntelliJ IDEA from Source using Ubuntu

Although, install IntelliJ IDEA on Ubuntu from the source is a little difficult, but you can download the latest version of one, which means there will have more features.

So to install, you should follow:

Go to Jetbrain's Download Center
Choose Linux, and download the version you want to install
Extract the downloaded files to /opt directory by running this command:
```
sudo tar -xzf ideaIU.tar.gz -C /opt
```
Execute the idea.sh script from the extracted directory to run IntelliJ IDEA.

Conclusion

I hope this post helped you to install IntelliJ IDEA on Ubuntu and other Linux distributions. If you need to ask any questions, feel free to contact me :)