How do I install Visual Studio Code?

I just downloaded VSCode-linux-x64 from the Microsoft website. It's a 62 MB zip file. How can I install it on my Ubuntu system?

Solution 1:

Update

VSCode is now available as DEB file. You can download it and then run:

sudo dpkg -i ~/path/to/code_1.XXX.deb

In case dpkg complains about missing dependencies, run:

sudo apt -f install

afterwards to fix the problem.

Old answer

1. Download Visual Studio Code for Linux
2. Extract it: unzip VSCode-linux-x64.zip -d ~/path/to/VSCode
3. Run the code executable to open Visual Studio Code
4. (Optional) Create a symbolic link to conveniently run code from the terminal:
   sudo ln -s /path/to/VSCode/code /usr/local/bin/code

Source (install instructions): https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/setup/linux

Solution 2:

Visual Studio Code enabled official Linux repositories on February 2017 (v1.10)

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys EB3E94ADBE1229CF
sudo add-apt-repository -y "deb [arch=amd64] https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/vscode stable main"
sudo apt -y install code

You can upgrade / dist-upgrade as usual

sudo apt -y upgrade
sudo apt -y dist-upgrade