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The Ubuntu 9.04 packages contain only the outdated version 3.2 of the popular IDE Eclipse. If you want to install Galileo/3.5, the latest version, you will have to do it yourself. This will guide you through the necessary steps to install Eclipse on your Ubuntu machine (or any other Linux Desktop).

First, download the latest version of Eclipse to your desktop. I recommend to use Eclipse Classic (scroll down). While your computer is downloading the file, get yourself a cup of tea (or coffee).

When the download is finished, open a terminal and navigate to the opt directory, where optional software is to be installed.

cd /opt

This is were you want to unpack the downloaded tarball:

sudo mv ~/Desktop/eclipse-SDK-3.5-linux-gtk-x86_64.tar.gz /opt
sudo tar xfvz eclipse-SDK-3.5-linux-gtk-x86_64.tar.gz
# we do not need the tarball anymore
sudo rm eclipse-SDK-3.5-linux-gtk-x86_64.tar.gz

Please note that if you did not download the file to your Desktop directory or want to use another version of Eclipse, e.g. 32bit, you will have to modify the lines above. Use tab to save yourself some keystrokes.

Okay, now let’s run it with root rights. Why root rights? Because we want to install some plugins.

cd eclipse
sudo ./eclipse

Eclipse will ask for a workspace. The default should be fine. If Eclipse started successfully, click Help and then Install New Software to install your favourite plugins. I usually install C/C++ Development Tools, Ruby Development Tools as well as PHP Development Tools from the default update site (for 3.5 it is called Galileo) and PyDev (Python), Subclipse (Subversion) and TeXlipse (LaTeX). Right-click on the aforementioned links to copy the URL of the update site.

When you finished downloading and installing plugins, close Eclipse and execute the following command:

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

Now you can create a new starter and point it to eclipse. Click it, to start Eclipse. Tada! You are almost finished.

You might want to delete root’s workspace using the following command:

sudo rm --recursive --force /root/workspace

Now, you are finished. Congratulations! Fasten your seatbelt and start coding.