How to Install Chromium Browser in Ubuntu Linux

This article demonstrates several ways of installing Chromium browser in Ubuntu and other Linux distributions.

Chromium is an open-source browser project that sits at the foundation of Google Chrome. It is maintained by The Chromium Projects, along with Chromium OS.

You can install Google Chrome in Ubuntu easily but if you want to use the open source version of Chrome (i.e. Chromium), then you are at the right place.

In this article, I’ll be covering information about Chromium, how you can install Chromium in Ubuntu and other Linux distributions, as well as how to install the Beta and Dev versions of Chromium.

Installing Chromium in Ubuntu

There are various ways you can install Chromium on your Linux machine.

If you are okay with using commands, you can simply type this in the terminal:

sudo apt install -y chromium-browser

If you are not comfortable with terminal, don’t worry. In Ubuntu (as well as in other distributions), you can find Chromium in the Software Center. Open up Software Center and search for Chromium:

Click on the entry and then on Install:

You can now open Chromium by searching for it in the Applications menu:

or by opening up a terminal and typing in:

chromium

You can uninstall the app in Ubuntu the same way you installed it (from the Software Center).

However, you may not get the latest version through the software center, if you want that, you can follow any of the methods below.

sudo snap install chromium

sudo snap remove chromium

sudo apt install -y chromium-codecs-ffmpeg

sudo apt install -y chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra

Installing Chromium Beta & Dev Channels

Dev and Beta builds of Chromium enable you to access several experimental features that are not available in the stable version. Some enthusiastic users or developers try these unstable channels from time to time.

You can install the beta and dev version of Chromium using an unofficial PPA.

Note: Your install of stable Chromium browser will be overridden by the unstable version.

Install Chromium Beta channel in Ubuntu

Use the following commands to install Chromium Beta:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:saiarcot895/chromium-beta
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install chromium-browser

To remove this (unstable) version, use:

sudo apt remove -y chromium*
sudo ppa-purge ppa:saiarcot895/chromium-beta

Install Chromium Dev channel in Ubuntu

Enter the following in the terminal to install Chromium Dev:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:saiarcot895/chromium-dev
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install chromium-browser

As before, to remove this unstable version, use:

sudo apt remove -y chromium*
sudo ppa-purge ppa:saiarcot895/chromium-dev

Install Chromium via Flathub

If you need the latest stable version and you prefer using Flatpak, you can choose to install the Flatpak package.

Chromium is available as a Flatpak package on Flathub but the only problem is — you need to have Flatpak 1.8.2 installed to be able to install Chromium.

You can check your installed version by typing in:

flatpak --version

If you have anything below 1.8.2, you need to upgrade Flatpak installed on your system. You can easily do that using the following commands below:

Note: This will upgrade your Flatpak to the latest pre-release version (proceed at your own risk):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:alexlarsson/flatpak
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Once you’re done upgrading, you can simply install Chromium using the command:

flatpak install flathub org.chromium.Chromium

Wrapping Up

In this article, I’ve covered some features of Chromium and the various methods you can install it on Ubuntu and other Linux distributions, even covering Beta and Dev releases.

I also recommend mastering Chromium keyboard shortcuts to use it more efficiently.

Thanks for reading our article. We hoped that you learned something new while reading it. As always, we are eager to hear your questions and suggestions in the comments!