How to install Visual Studio Code on Linux

We are now going to explain how easy and fast it is to install Visual Studio Code on Linux. One of the most popular Linux distributions, Ubuntu 16.04, will serve as an example.

If you do not have a physical or virtual installation of Linux Ubuntu available, you can easily install it in Azure for trying out Visual Studio Code and understanding the various ASP.NET Core 2.0 examples, and then connect via Microsoft Remote Desktop app to it.

In this case, select the Linux Ubuntu 16.04 LTS image from the Azure Marketplace and create a new Linux Ubuntu VM in Azure. Leave all of the default options, then configure it to allow remote desktop connections (install compatible desktop, install xrdp, open port 3389, and more):

Let's see how to install Visual Studio Code on Linux Ubuntu:

First, download the Linux Ubuntu install .deb package (64-bit) from https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=760868:

Open a new Terminal window in Ubuntu.
Install the downloaded package via sudo dpkg -i <file>.deb.
Then, enter sudo apt-get install -f.
Set Visual Studio Code as your default text file editor by typing the command xdg-mime default code.desktop text/plain.

The installation will begin and automatically install the APT repository and signing key for enabling automatic package updates, as well as Visual Studio Code:

You can also manually install the repository and signing key, update the package cache, and then finally start the Visual Studio Code package installation, as follows:

Open a new Terminal window in Ubuntu:

      curl https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc | gpg --
       dearmor>microsoft.gpg

      sudo mv microsoft.gpg /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/microsoft.gpg

      sudo sh -c 'echo "deb [arch=amd64]
       https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/vscode stable main" > 
       /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscode.list'

      sudo apt-get update

      sudo apt-get install code

Set Visual Studio Code as your default text file editor by typing the command xdg-mime default code.desktop text/plain.

For more information and details on how to install Visual Studio Code on other Linux distributions such as RHEL, Fedora, CentOS, openSUSE, SLE, or others, please go to https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/setup/linux.