Audacity is a free open source software used for audio editing and recording. In this blog post we will cover the steps on How to install Audacity on Ubuntu machines, we will also see how to uninstall the software on Ubuntu machines and the number of ways you can install and uninstall the software.
I. From Terminal
Open terminal and type in one of the following commands based on which source you want to install from
1. Source – Deb Packages
- When you install from traditional deb packages, you will not get the latest version until the next release of Ubuntu and it is up-to the community.
- They’re not always up to date, but the startup time is much better.
a. For Installation
sudo apt install audacity
b. For Uninstallation
sudo apt remove audacity
2. Source – snap store
- When you install from snap packages you would get the latest version, these are more up to date and are updated automatically.
- However snaps tend to be slow to load and take up more space.
a. For Installation
sudo snap install audacity
b. For Uninstallation
sudo snap remove audacity
3. Source – PPA
- PPA stands for Personal Package Archive as the name suggest’s these are personal archive files of a developer.
- Software developers create these repositories and distribute them when they want end user’s to play around and test the features of the upcoming release.
- Ubuntu maintains a procedure to check if the new version of the software is compatible with the system or not to ensure the stability of the system.
- Hence the PPA versions are not endorsed by the distribution and are not available via official Ubuntu repositories.
- You would be getting the very latest version but PPA’s may or may not be compatible with your system and may or may not be stable.
a. For Installation
Add the repository
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/audacity
check for the availability by running the update command
sudo apt-get update
and then install
sudo apt-get install audacity
b. For Uninstallation
Uninstall the software
sudo apt-get remove audacity
remove the ppa added
sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/audacity
and then run the update command to check if the ppa is removed
sudo apt-get update
II. From Ubuntu Software
Ubuntu software, is another way how you can install audacity on Ubuntu machines.
- Click on “Show Applications” and look for Ubuntu Software and launch it .
2. In the window that opens, click on the “search” icon provided on the top right corner and type in “audacity”.
The software shows up multiple times, because it is listed from different sources.
If you choose to install from Snap store, as mentioned earlier you would get the latest version of the software also it would be updated automatically, however might be slow at startup and take up more space.
You can also choose to install from official Ubuntu repository, it might not be the latest version and latest version will be available with next update released from Ubuntu, however from this source software’s takes up less space and launch comparatively faster.
3. Choose the source of your choice and click on it to open the install window
when the install button is clicked, you will be prompted for password, enter password and the installation starts.
After the installation completes the same window will have options “Launch” and “Remove”, clicking on “Launch” launches the software and clicking on “Remove” uninstalls the software from your machine.
Additional Info
1. Official release site for checking out the release features
3. You can also checkout YouTube video on the same