How To Install Eclipse IDE on Ubuntu 20.04

Eclipse is a widely used Integrated Development Environment for JAVA application development. It is also used for developing applications in various programming languages such as COBOL, Ada, C, C++, Perl, PHP, Python, R, Ruby, Clojure, Scala, Groovy, and Scheme with the help of plug-ins.

Eclipse is released under Eclipse Public License, a free and open-source license.

Here, we will see how to install Eclipse IDE on Ubuntu 20.04.

Install Eclipse IDE On Ubuntu 20.04

To be able to run commands in this post, you must have sudo privileges.

Install Java

Update the system repository index.

sudo apt update

Eclipse requires Java JDK 8 or newer to be available on your machine. You can either use Oracle JDK or OpenJDK.

For this demo, I will use OpenJDK 11.

sudo apt install -y openjdk-11-jdk

Verify the Java version on your machine.

java -version

Output:

openjdk version "11.0.7" 2020-04-14
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 11.0.7+10-post-Ubuntu-3ubuntu1)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 11.0.7+10-post-Ubuntu-3ubuntu1, mixed mode, sharing)

Download Eclipse

Download the latest version of Eclipse IDE (2020-03) from the official page using a web browser.

OR

You can download the Eclipse package over a terminal using the following command (risk of being changed).

sudo apt install -y wget

wget http://mirror.umd.edu/eclipse/technology/epp/downloads/release/2020-06/R/eclipse-java-2020-06-R-linux-gtk-x86_64.tar.gz

Extract Eclipse package to your desired directory (Ex. /usr/).

sudo tar -zxvf eclipse-java-2020-06-R-linux-gtk-x86_64.tar.gz -C /usr/

Symlink the Eclipse executable to /usr/bin path so that other users on your machine can able to use Eclipse IDE from the command line.

sudo ln -s /usr/eclipse/eclipse /usr/bin/eclipse

Create Eclipse Launcher Icon

In addition to the command line, you can set up the launcher icon in GNOME to start the Eclipse IDE.

sudo nano /usr/share/applications/eclipse.desktop

Copy and paste the following information into the above file.

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Eclipse IDE
Comment=Eclipse IDE
Exec=/usr/bin/eclipse
Icon=/usr/eclipse/icon.xpm
Terminal=false
Type=Application
StartupNotify=false

Access Eclipse IDE

Command Line

eclipse

GUI

Go to Activities » Search for Eclipse IDE.

Select a directory to store Eclipse IDE’s preferences and artifacts.

Eclipse IDE 2020-03 running on Ubuntu 20.04:

Conclusion

That’s All. I hope you have learned how to install Eclipse IDE on Ubuntu 20.04. You can visit Eclipse Market Place to download plugins to extend the functionality of Eclipse IDE.