Linux Mint

How to Install Atom Text Editor on Linux Mint 20

Developed by GitHub, Atom is a multi-platform and open-source text editor. Atom offers a lot of features like autocompletion, multiple panes, and highlighting of syntax. Moreover, Git is embedded in the Atom text editor.

Atom can be installed on Linux Mint 20 using the official Debian package and Atom’s repository. Moreover, Atom is also available from the snap application manager.

Installing Atom on Linux Mint 20 using the Debian package

Atom is not included in the Linux Mint 20 standard repositories. However, it can be installed using Atom’s official Debian package. Open your browser and visit Atom’s official webpage (https://atom.io/).

Click on ‘Downloads .deb’ to download Atom’s Debian package.

Choose ‘Save File’ and click ‘OK’.

The Debian package will be downloaded and saved in the ‘Downloads’ directory.

Once the Debian package is downloaded successfully, open the terminal window and navigate to the ‘Downloads’ directory with the command:

$ cd Downloads

Now, update the apt repository with the command:

$ sudo apt update

Next, execute the below-given command to install the Atom text editor using the Debian package:

$ sudo apt install ./atom-amd64.deb

Press ‘y’ to continue installing Atom.

Once the Atom text editor is successfully installed, verify the installation with the command:

$ Atom --version

At the time of preparing this guide, the latest version of Atom is 1.54.0. Atom 1.54.0 is successfully installed on my Linux Mint 20 system.

Installing Atom on Linux Mint 20 from Atom repository

In this method, we will add the Atom official repository to the source list. The Atom will be updated automatically whenever we will update the apt repository.

Complete the below-given steps to install Atom on Linux Mint 20:

Step 1: Import GPG key

Fire up the terminal and import the GPG key with the command:

$ wget -q https://packagecloud.io/AtomEditor/atom/gpgkey -O- | sudo apt-key add

OK indicates that the key is imported successfully.

Step 2: Add Atom repository

Next, add the Atom repository in the sources list with the command:

$ sudo add-apt-repository "deb [arch=amd64] https://packagecloud.io/AtomEditor/atom/any/ any main"

Step 3: Update apt repository

Once the Atom repository is added to the sources list successfully, update the apt repository:

$ sudo apt update

The apt repository is updated successfully, and we are ready to install Atom.

Step 4: Install an Atom text editor

Type the below-given command to install Atom text editor:

$ sudo apt install atom

Press ‘y’ to continue installing Atom from the repository.

Once the Atom text editor is installed, check the installed version with the command:

$ Atom --version

Installing Atom via snap

Snap is a universal package manager and comes disabled on Linux Mint 20. To install Atom via snap, first, enable snap on Linux Mint 20

First, remove the nosnap.pref file with the command:

$ sudo rm /etc/apt/preferences.d/nosnap.pref

Now update the apt repository and install the snapd on Linux Mint 20 with the commands:

$ sudo apt update

$ sudo apt install snapd

Once the snap is enabled and installed, install the Atom text editor:

$ sudo snap install Atom --classic

Getting started with Atom

Open the Application Menu and search for Atom.

The Atom text editor is ready for use.

Remove Atom from Linux Mint 20

If you have installed the Atom using the Debian package or official repository, then you can remove the Atom with apt command as follows:

$ sudo apt remove --autoremove atom

Press ‘y’ to continue removing Atom.

If you have installed Atom via snap, then type the below-given command to remove it:

$ sudo snap remove atom

The Atom code editor will be removed successfully.

Conclusion

Atom is an open-source and multi-platform text editor. It can be installed on Linux Mint 20 using the Debian package, official repository, and snap. Atom offers a lot of useful features, including autocompletion and syntax highlighting.

About the author

Kamran Sattar Awaisi

I am a software engineer and a research scholar. I like to write article and make tutorial on various IT topics including Python, Cloud Computing, Fog Computing and Deep Learning. I love to use Linux based operating systems.