How to watch YouTube on the Linux desktop with FreeTube
FreeTube is a standalone YouTube client for Linux, Mac, and Windows. The concept of FreeTube is to deliver users the YouTube content that they love, but without the prying eyes of Google watching them and saving data. In this guide, we’ll show you how you can install FreeTube on your Linux PC. We’ll also go over how to use the app too.
Installing FreeTube on Linux
FreeTube is available for Linux users on Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, OpenSUSE, Arch Linux AUR, and others. To install this program on your Linux PC, start by opening up a terminal window.
You can open up a terminal window on the Linux desktop by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T on the keyboard. Alternatively, search for “Terminal” in the app menu to open it. Once the terminal window is open and ready to use, follow the installation instructions outlined below.
Ubuntu
On Ubuntu, you’ll need to install FreeTube using a downloadable DEB package file. To get it, use the following wget download command below. This command will place the DEB package in your home directory.
wget https://github.com/FreeTubeApp/FreeTube/releases/download/v0.14.0-beta/freetube_0.14.0_amd64.deb
After downloading the DEB package file to your computer, the installation of FreeTube can begin. Using the apt install command below, set up the app on Ubuntu.
sudo apt install ./freetube_0.14.0_amd64.deb
Debian
Debian users, like Ubuntu users, can only install FreeTube on their system by downloading the official DEB package. To get your hands on the FreeTube DEB package, use the following wget command down below.
wget https://github.com/FreeTubeApp/FreeTube/releases/download/v0.14.0-beta/freetube_0.14.0_amd64.deb
After downloading the DEB package to your home folder on Debian, the installation of FreeTube can begin. Using the dpkg command below, install the package.
sudo dpkg -i freetube_0.14.0_amd64.deb
Finally, once FreeTube is installed, you’ll need to correct any dependency issues that may have occurred during the installation process. To do this, use the apt-get install -f command.
sudo apt-get install -f
Arch Linux
FreeTube is available to Arch Linux users via the Arch Linux AUR. To get it working on your Arch system, start by installing the Trizen AUR helper tool. This program will make installing AUR apps much more manageable.
sudo pacman -S git base-devel git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/trizen.git cd trizen/ makepkg -sri
After setting up the Trizen AUR helper on your Arch Linux system, you can install the FreeTube app using the following trizen -S command.
trizen -S freetube-bin
Fedora
If you’re on Fedora Linux, you’ll be able to get the latest release of FreeTube working on your computer using the official RPM package file. To get your hands on this RPM package, use the wget download command below.
wget https://github.com/FreeTubeApp/FreeTube/releases/download/v0.14.0-beta/freetube_0.14.0_amd64.rpm
After downloading the FreeTube RPM package to Fedora, install the application using the dnf install command.
sudo dnf install freetube_0.14.0_amd64.rpm
OpenSUSE
On OpenSUSE Linux, you’ll be able to get the FreeTube program working by downloading and installing the RPM package available on their website. Using the wget command below, download the package.
wget https://github.com/FreeTubeApp/FreeTube/releases/download/v0.14.0-beta/freetube_0.14.0_amd64.rpm
After downloading the RPM package to your computer, you’ll be able to install FreeTube on your OpenSUSE Linux PC using the zypper install command.
sudo zypper install freetube_0.14.0_amd64.rpm
Using FreeTube on Linux
To use FreeTube on Linux, start by launching the application on the desktop. To launch the app, search for “FreeTube” in the app menu and click on it. When the app is open, follow the step-by-step instructions below.
Step 1: Find the “Search/Go to URL” box, and click on it with the mouse. After selecting this button, type in what you want to watch on YouTube.
Step 2: After typing what you want to watch on YouTube into the “Search/Go to URL” box, press the Enter key on the keyboard to view the search results. Alternatively, click on the arrow icon in the search box.
Step 3: Look through the search results to find the video you wish to watch. When you’ve found the video that you want to watch in the FreeTube application, click on it with the mouse.
Step 4: When you select a video in the search results, FreeTube will load the YouTube video into the application and display it. From here, click on the play button in the center of the video to watch it on FreeTube.
Subscribing to channels
It is possible to track your YouTube subscriptions in FreeTube without the need for signing up for YouTube. Here’s how to subscribe to channels. First, find the “Search/ Go to URL” search box, and click on it with the mouse.
After accessing the search box, type in the name of the YouTube channel you wish to subscribe to and press the Enter key on the keyboard. Next, look through the search results for the channel, and click on it to access it.
When you’ve accessed the channel, click on the “Subscribe” button. Once you choose this button, the channel will be added to the “subscriptions” area of FreeTube.
