Equipping GNU/Linux Trisquel Aramo with Integrated Development Environments (IDEs)

-I included: Those that can be installed in Aramo AND get updates AND are general-purpose so they allow to use more than one language.

You missed KDevelop. And there is Emacs with Eglot...

There is something surprising in many of their licenses: License GPL 'X or later'. What is that, the license of Schrödinger?

See https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-compatibility.html

Changes on the content:
-Added KDevelop.
-Corrected a critical mistake on VSCodium, method 2, step 2.
-Learnt that the reason NetBeans failed to install through method 4 was that someone forgot to add a critical command, fixed it.
-Some phrases rewritten to made more clear.
-Format improved.

So there you have it! I think it is better to repost the whole content improved rather than go through the full list of changes:

Equipping GNU/Linux Trisquel Aramo with Integrated Development Environments (IDEs)

I consider this document to be Public Domain, at least the parts that I wrote. I mention methods created by others and copy their commands - do not know if commands could be copyrightable and what would be their legal status in that case.

IDEs provided by Trisquel

These are the ones found in the Trisquel menu, Add/Remove Applications window, Development section, in alphabetic order: Anjuta, Bluefish, Code::Blocks, CodeLite, Geany.

Anjuta 3.34.0

License GPL 2.0 or later. Self-defined just as 'Integrated Development Environment'. Allows to create projects using languages C, C++, Java, JS, Python and Vala. Discontinued. Its website, http://www.anjuta.org/ , is no longer functional and now redirects to, uh, https://www.firstdoormarketing.com/

Bluefish 2.2.12

License GPL 3.0 or later. Self-defined as 'software developers editor'. Allows to create projects using languages C, Apache, DHTML, DocBook, HTML, PHP+HTML, PHP, Replace, SQL and python 2 to 3. Website: https://bluefish.openoffice.nl/

Code::Blocks

Self-defined as 'cross-platform Integrated Development Environment (IDE)'. Gets installed, cannot be found in the menu. Website: https://codeblocks.org

CodeLite 14.0.0

License is said to be GPL 2.0 or later. Self-defined as 'Free, open source, C/C++/PHP and JavaScript IDE'. Allows to create projects with, well, C, C++, JS and PHP. Website: https://codelite.org

Geany 1.38

License GPL 2. Self-defined as an 'quick and light IDE', it is said to allow to create projects using languages 'C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, PHP, HTML, LaTeX, CSS, Python, Perl, Ruby, Pascal, Haskell, Erlang, Vala and many others'. Website: https://www.geany.org/

Requirements in order to install IDEs not provided by Trisquel

Some of the IDEs not provided by Trisquel have requirements previous to the installation. Let's go through this requirements:

Requirement: Install package libfuse2

$ sudo apt install libfuse2

Recommendable? Yes. Also, to my knowledge Aramo already includes it.

Requirement: Install package flatpak

$ sudo apt install flatpak

Aramo reports installing package flatpak version 1.12.7-1ubuntu0.1.
Recommendable? Yes.

Requirement: Install package snap

$ sudo apt install snap

Aramo reports installing package snap version 2013-11-29-11.
Recommendable? No. The snap command is not found afterwards.

Requirement: Install package snapd

$ sudo apt install snapd

Aramo reports finding no candidate for install.
Recommendable? No.

Requirement: Install Java Runtime Environment (JRE)

$ sudo apt install default-jre

Aramo reports installing OpenJDK Runtime Environment build 11.0.25+9-post-Ubuntu-1ubuntu122.04.
Recommendable? Yes.

Requirement: Install Java Development Kit (JDK) (includes JRE)

$ sudo apt install default-jdk

Aramo reports installing OpenJDK "11.0.25" 2024-10-15.
Recommendable? Yes.

Requirement: Install JDK 17

$ sudo apt install openjdk-17-jdk

Aramo reports installing version 17.0.13+11-2ubuntu1~22.04 of packages openjdk-17-jdk, openjdk-17-jdk-headless, openjdk-17-jre, openjdk-17-jre-headless.
Recommendable? Yes.

Requirement: Add repository 'universe' from Ubuntu

$ sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal universe"

This commands creates the file /etc/apt/sources.list.d/archive_uri-https_archive_ubuntu_com_ubuntu-aramo.list . Edit the file:

$ sudo nano archive_uri-https_archive_ubuntu_com_ubuntu-aramo.list

Insert "[trusted=yes]" so the file contains the following:

deb [trusted=yes] https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal universe

Recommendable? No, because of three reasons:

• It is a bad idea: Adding the universe repository means that non-libre software from the Ubuntu distribution will get mixed in general with Trisquel's Libre Updates.
• It goes worse: Trusting the repository without a signature weakens the security.
• It works the worst: After adding this repository, Aramo's Software Updates fails and becomes a zombie process every time that I launch it.

IDEs not provided by Trisquel

These are the IDEs not provided by Trisquel, along with different methods to install them: Eclipse, Intellij IDEA, KDevelop, NetBeans, VSCodium:

Eclipse 4.34.0

License Eclipse Public License. Website: https://eclipseide.org/
Requirements: JRE.
3 methods to install Eclipse: https://itsfoss.com/install-latest-eclipse-ubuntu/

Method 1: Installing Eclipse using Snap [Easy]

Requirements: snap.
Discarded because of snap command being not found.

Method 2: Installing Eclipse using the official installer (for intermediates)

Warning: Software installed through this method can be updated, but not automatically through Software Updates.
Step 1: Download installer.
Step 2: Extract eclipse-installer directory.
Step 3: Execute eclipse-inst
Installation successful. Updates are not automatical through Aramo's Software Updates and have to be launched from the menu, at Help -> Check for updates..

Method 3: Install Eclipse in classic Linux style (for experts)

Warning: Software installed through this method can be updated, but not automatically through Software Updates.
This is the old tar -xvzf method. Not verified because of already having installed Eclipse throught method 2.

Intellij IDEA 2024.1

License Apache License 2.0. Website: https://www.jetbrains.com/idea/
4 methods to install Intellij IDEA: https://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/2023/09/install-intellij-idea-2023-ubuntu/
Requirements: JDK.

Method 1: Install Intellij IDEA via Snap package

Requirements: snap.
Discarded because of snap command being not found.

Method 2: Install Intellij IDEA via Flatpak package

Requirements: flatpak.
Warning: Software installed through this method can be updated, but not automatically through Software Updates.
Step 1:

$ flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/com.jetbrains.IntelliJ-IDEA-Community.flatpakref

Step 2: Log out
Step 2: Log in
Installation successful. Updates are not automatical through Aramo's Software Updates and have to be launched either from the start screen by clicking on the gear icon at the bottom left corner, then 'Check for Updates', or by entering the following command:

$ flatpak update com.jetbrains.IntelliJ-IDEA-Community

Method 3: Install IntelliJ IDEA via Official Tarball

This is the old tar -xvzf method. Not verified because of already having installed IntelliJ IDEA throught methods 2 and 4.

Method 4: Install IntelliJ IDEA via Ubuntu PPA.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xtradeb/apps

$ sudo apt update

$ sudo apt install intellij-idea-community

Installation successful. Updates are automatical through Software Updates, though updates from ppa:xtradeb/apps are mixed with Aramo's. Personally, I prefer not to have this - I uninstalled Intellij IDEA and reinstalled it through method 2.

KDevelop 6.1.241202

License GPL 2.0 or later. Website: https://kdevelop.org/
3 methods to install KDevelop: https://linuxcapable.com/install-kdevelop-on-ubuntu-linux/
Requirements: JDK.

Method 1: Install KDevelop via APT

Discarded because it works for Ubuntu, but not for Trisquel.

Method 2: Install KDevelop via Snapcraft Commands

Method 3: Install KDevelop via Flatpak package

Requirements: flatpak.
Warning: Software installed through this method can be updated, but not automatically through Trisquel's Software Updates.
Step 1:

$ sudo flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

Step 2:

$ flatpak install flathub org.kde.kdevelop -y

Installation successful. Updates are not automatical through Aramo's Software Updates and have to be launched from flatpak, like this:

flatpak update

NetBeans 24

License Apache 2.0. Website: https://netbeans.apache.org/
4 methods to install NetBeans: https://www.baeldung.com/linux/netbeans-install-uninstall
Requirements: JDK 17.

Method 1: Using Binary Package

Warning: Software installed through this method can be updated, but not automatically through Trisquel's Software Updates.
Step 1: Add Netbeans' GPG key:

$ wget https://downloads.apache.org/netbeans/KEYS

$ gpg --import KEYS

Step 2: Find and download the deb package, the checksum file and the signature file. In this example we are using version 24-1:

$ wget https://dlcdn.apache.org/netbeans/netbeans-installers/24/apache-netbeans_24-1_all.deb

$ wget https://downloads.apache.org/netbeans/netbeans-installers/24/apache-netbeans_24-1_all.deb.sha512

$ wget https://downloads.apache.org/netbeans/netbeans-installers/24/apache-netbeans_24-1_all.deb.asc

Step 3: Verify cheksum

$ sha512sum -c apache-netbeans_24-1_all.deb.sha512

Step 4: Verify signature.

$ gpg --verify apache-netbeans_24-1_all.deb.asc apache-netbeans_24-1_all.deb

gpg shows the signature to be correct, but warns that the key signing it is not trusted – this is usual for public key cryptography, until you import to your key-ring keys from enough people and they sign enough of each other’s keys.
Step 5: We can install the package:

sudo dpkg -i apache-netbeans_24-1_all.deb

Aramo reports intalling the package, NetBeans shows up in Aramo's menu, we can launch it and the window opens. Then, if the requirement of installing JDK 17 is not fulfilled, NetBeans will show a dialog dog refusing to run without it until we install it.
Installation successful but updates are not automatical through Aramo's Software Updates and have to be launched from the menu, at Help -> Check for updates..

Method 2: Using APT Repository

Discarded because of the problems caused by the 'universe' repository.

Method 3: Using Snap

Requirements: snap.
Discarded because of snap command being not found.

Method 4: Using Flatpak

Requirements: flatpak.
Warning: Software installed through this method can be updated, but not automatically through Trisquel's Software Updates.
Step 1:

$ sudo flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

This step is missing in the article containing the methods to install NetBeans, causing the installation to produce the error 'No remote refs found similar to ‘flathub'.
Step 2:

$ flatpak install flathub org.apache.netbeans

Installation successful. Updates are not automatical through Aramo's Software Updates and have to be launched from flatpak, like this:

flatpak update

VSCodium 1.96.4

License MIT. Website: https://code.visualstudio.com/
4 methods to install VSCodium: https://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/2024/01/install-vscodium-ubuntu/

Method 1: Install VSCodium via Snap

Discarded because of snap command being not found.

Method 2: Install VSCodium via Flatpak (Unofficial)

Requirements: flatpak.

$ flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/com.vscodium.codium.flatpakref

This method appears to work. Not verified because of being unofficial.

Method 3: Native .deb package

Discarded because of lacking Software Updates.

Method 4: Install VSCodium via apt repository.

This method works in Debian/Ubuntu/Trisquel from the source https://paulcarroty.gitlab.io/vscodium-deb-rpm-repo/debs vscodium main
Step 1: Download and importe the GPG key of the repository:

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 repository:

echo 'deb [ arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/vscodium-archive-keyring.asc ] https://paulcarroty.gitlab.io/vscodium-deb-rpm-repo/debs vscodium main'     | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscodium.list

This command creates two files:

• /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscodium.list
• /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscodium.list.save

Both files have the same content:

deb [ arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/vscodium-archive-keyring.asc ] ht
tps://paulcarroty.gitlab.io/vscodium-deb-rpm-repo/debs vscodium main

Step 3: Update repositories then install vscodium:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install codium

Installation successful.

IDEs not considered:

Yes, I know. There are always more IDEs. I discarded Sublime Text because of being non-free, I haven't tried Emacs with add-ons, or Vim with add-ons. But as far as I am concerned, this document is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY license, so if you want to add anything you can do it. The commands are copied from the articles linked in the document, do not now whether commands can be copyrightable and what would be their legal status in that case.
The preview of this comment is showing an image name 'repository.png' just below this line. It is not added by me, I do not know what it is doing there.

I'd like to say that many features of Code::Blocks (the contrib plugins) are installed separately, so including codeblocks-contrib would be very nice. Thanks in advance.

OK, I installed the package codeblocks-contrib and now "Code::Blocks IDE" is available in Trisquel's menu. I will update the content accordingly.

I also understand that this information may be better placed in a Wiki page, so I can create it but am not sure about its placement.

• Following the "documentation" link in the top bar of Trisquel's website I arrive to the Documentation page.
• From the Documentation page the only adequate link to follow seems to be Manuals page (All Manuals).
• At the Manuals page there is a "III. Development" section, but meant for Trisquel's development. The only adequate section to place a Wiki page for IDEs seems to be "X. Advanced".