How to install Eclipse on Ubuntu

This post explains how to install Eclipse on Ubuntu.

Ways to install Eclipse IDE on Ubuntu

There are different ways to install Eclipse on Ubuntu:

Official package
snap
Ubuntu Sofware app
apt

Each of these ways has its drawbacks, so please read all of them.

Install Eclipse IDE using official package

The process of installing the official packages is very manual (or not as automatic or clean as apt or snap), though it is the official way.

The overview of these steps are:

1. Download the installer for your system (probably linux-x86-64).
2. Unzip the installer tar-gzip:
tar -xzvf eclipse-inst-jre-linux64.tar.gz
3. Run the installer:
eclipse-installer/eclipse-inst&
4. Click the menu icon of three bars at right top corner
5. If there is a menu entry for updating, click it
6. Use the updated installer to install your favorite Eclipse setup.

You can install it from the official package and check the instructions on this link.

Install Eclipse IDE using snap

I consider it a clean way to install Eclipse, but it is not exempt from problems, as this I found myself when updating the app from the option “Update software”.

Type this command in the terminal:

sudo snap install --classic eclipse

Wait until installation is finished.

Install Eclipse IDE using Ubuntu Software app

You can find Eclipse IDE app from Ubuntu Software app.

It would be the same result as using snap, but using a graphical interface.

Install Eclipse IDE using apt

Apparently, Eclipse do not provide official Personal Package Archives (PPA) for Debian-like (e.g., Ubuntu) repositories. Then, apt Eclipse is usually outdated.

Ubuntu only provides as default Eclipse from the snap package manager, not from apt.

In case you want to use apt, first you need to add one of the unofficial repositories to apt repos. Once done, you can continue with the next step.

There is “PPA for Eclipse team” that has not been updated since 2009. You can add the PPAs by typing:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:eclipse-team/ppa
sudo apt update