How to install VSCodium on Ubuntu 20.04

VSCodium is a fully open source community-driven, freely-licensed binary distribution of Microsoft’s editor VS Code. It’s identical to VS Code with the single biggest difference that unlike VS Code, VSCodium doesn’t track your usage data.

This project’s sole aim is to provide you with ready to use binaries without Microsoft’s telemetry code. It’s an cross-platform application available for Microsoft Windows, Linux and macOS.

Since VSCodium is a clone of VS Code, it looks and functions exactly the same as Visual Studio Code hence Working with VSCodium is the same as working with VSCode.

The source code for Visual Studio Code is made available under the MIT license and so is fully open source but the binary code that you download from Microsoft isn’t. You should also aware that behind the scenes, VSCode is sending data to Microsoft while VSCodium isn’t.

And that is the only difference between VScode and VSCodium.

This article explains two methods of installing VSCodium on Ubuntu 20.04.

Choose the installation method that is most appropriate for your environment.

Method 1: Installing VSCodium as a Snap Package

The easiest way to install VSCodium on Ubuntu 20.04 is by using the snap packaging system.

A snap package is a type of universal Linux package that you can enjoy irrespective of the distro. Its an self-contained software packages that include the binary all dependencies needed to run the application.

All you need is the snap service pre-configured, In the case of Ubuntu 20.04, it comes with snap pre-installed.

If snapd package is not already installed then you can install it by running following command.

$ sudo apt install snapd

Note: Snap packages can be installed from either the command-line or via the Ubuntu Software application.

This is actually the Snap version of the VSCodium. It can be used on any Linux distribution that has Snap support.

Open your terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and type the following command to install the VSCodium package.

$ sudo snap install codium --classic

At this step, you have successfully installed VSCodium on Ubuntu 20.04 system.

Type the following command to update VSCodium package.

$ sudo snap refresh codium

Method 2: Installing VSCodium via Package Repository

VSCodium has provided a repo for Debian and Ubuntu operating systems. Refer the following steps to install the application using the official repository.

Step #1

Install the GPG 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

Step #2

Add the repo to your apt lists directory.

$ 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

Step #3

Now type the following command to Update apt and install the VSCodium package.

$ sudo apt update && sudo apt install codium

That’s it, VSCodium has been installed on your Ubuntu System, and you can start using it.

Starting VSCodium

VSCodium can be launched from the command line by typing codium or In the Activities search bar type “VSCodium” and click on the icon.

VSCodium User Interface:

How to Uninstall VSCodium from Ubuntu 20.04

For some reason, If you want to uninstall VSCodium, refer following methods.

Method #1

If you have installed VSCodium via Snap type the following command:

$ sudo snap remove codium

Method #2

If you have installed the appication via Package Repository then uninstall by running the below command:

$ sudo apt remove codium

You can visit at following websites to get more information on VSCodium.

• VSCodium official website
• VSCodium Github Page

Conclusion

I hope that now you have a good understanding of How to install VSCodium on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa.

If anyone does have any questions about what we covered in this guide then feel free to ask in the comment section below and I will do my best to answer those.