Installing JetBrains Rider on Linux Mint

Why the Toolbox App, Not the Direct Download

[0:09 - 1:11] JetBrains offers a direct .tar.gz archive for Rider on its website. Downloading and extracting that file works, but it creates a maintenance problem: each subsequent Rider version lands in a separate folder on your machine, leaving multiple side-by-side installs that you manage yourself. You can launch any version you want, but keeping track of which is current, and removing old ones, becomes tedious over time.

The Toolbox app solves that. It is a lightweight management layer that installs Rider on your behalf, tracks the installed version, and delivers updates as notifications you can apply with a single click. You always launch the latest version from one consistent place, and uninstalling is just as clean. For a tool you plan to use long-term, the Toolbox is the right starting point.

To get it, navigate to JetBrains.com, go to Products, and select the Toolbox App rather than Rider directly. The site detects Linux and pre-selects the correct .tar.gz download. Hit Download and wait for it to complete.

Extracting and Running the Toolbox

[1:11 - 1:30] Once the archive finishes downloading, open it in your archive manager and extract it to your home folder, keeping the directory structure intact. The result is a folder with a long version string in its name, something like jetbrains-toolbox-2.x.x.xxxxx, and inside that a bin directory containing the jetbrains-toolbox executable.

That version string in the folder name is the awkward part. Typing the full path in a terminal is error-prone; a preferred shortcut is to navigate to the bin folder in the file manager, right-click, and choose "Open Terminal Here" (often labelled "Open Internal Terminal"). That drops you into a terminal already pointed at the right directory, so you can run:

./jetbrains-toolbox

./jetbrains-toolbox

Running it through the terminal rather than double-clicking in the file manager lets you see any output or errors as it starts. The Toolbox window appears after a moment.

Initial Toolbox Setup

[1:30 - 1:50] The first time the Toolbox opens, it asks you to accept the user agreement. After declining the option to send anonymous usage statistics and confirming your region, click Start. The Toolbox shows a searchable list of every JetBrains product available for Linux; you can scroll through or use the search bar at the top to jump directly to what you need.

Installing Rider

[1:50 - 2:19] Type "Rider" into the Toolbox search bar. The results show the All Products Pack and the .NET Ultimate Pack alongside a standalone Rider entry. The standalone listing notes "free for non-commercial use." Click Install on that entry and wait for the download to finish; it is a sizeable package, so the time depends on your connection speed. Once complete, a Launch button replaces the Install button.

Understanding the Licensing Tiers

[2:19 - 3:57] Before launching, a detour to the Rider pricing page on JetBrains.com helps explain what each licensing tier actually covers. Understanding these options early saves confusion during activation.

The free non-commercial tier is free, but scoped to non-commercial use. JetBrains defines non-commercial use as learning and self-education, open-source contributions that do not generate commercial income, content creation, and hobby development. A JetBrains account is required to activate it. Without logging in, Rider runs as a 30-day commercial trial instead, so you will need to complete the login step before that window closes.

The commercial individual license is $169 per year for Rider alone. The pricing is structured to reward continuity: the second and third years come at a discount because you have already paid the initial price. JetBrains frames this as an incentive to stay in the subscription rather than cancel and re-subscribe.

The .NET Ultimate Pack bundles seven tools for $219 per year, including Rider, ReSharper, ReSharper for C++, dotTrace, dotCover, and dotMemory. For a Linux-only workflow, it's worth evaluating which of these tools deliver the most value.

ReSharper and ReSharper for C++ are Visual Studio extensions. If you work on Windows with Visual Studio alongside Rider on Linux, having ReSharper in the same subscription is a real benefit. For a Linux-only workflow, those two tools deliver nothing directly useful.

dotTrace, dotCover, and dotMemory are standalone profiling and analysis tools. dotTrace identifies performance bottlenecks, dotCover measures test coverage, and dotMemory tracks memory allocation and leaks. For any project where you are diagnosing runtime problems or keeping an eye on test coverage, these three add concrete utility that Rider alone does not provide.

The gap between the two commercial tiers is $50 in the first year and narrows to roughly $30 per year after the loyalty discounts apply. For serious C# work, the profiling tools alone often justify the .NET Ultimate Pack over standalone Rider. For learning, hobby work, and content creation, the free tier is the right starting point.

Launching Rider for the First Time

[3:57 - 4:30] Back in the Toolbox, click Launch. Rider opens and immediately asks whether to import settings from VS Code. Skip the import to start with a clean slate unless you have meaningful settings you specifically want to carry across.

Choosing a Theme

[4:30 - 5:05] The first configuration screen offers four themes: Dark, Visual Studio Dark, IntelliJ Dark, and Light. The Visual Studio dark variant is a common choice as it offers high contrast and reads clearly on different displays. For your own setup, pick whichever is easiest to read during long sessions; the choice has no functional effect on the IDE.

Choosing a Keymap

[5:05 - 5:47] The keymap screen offers three options: Visual Studio shortcuts, IntelliJ/JetBrains IDE shortcuts, and VS Code shortcuts. This is a meaningful choice if you regularly switch between tools.

He chooses VS Code. The argument is that Microsoft, when building VS Code, had the opportunity to revisit the shortcut decisions baked into the original Visual Studio and simplify them. The result is that the most-used actions in VS Code map to single keys or straightforward combinations: F12 for Go to Definition, F5 for Debug, F1 for Search. The equivalent bindings in Visual Studio involve multi-key sequences: Control+B or Control+G for Go to Definition, Alt+F5 for Debug. Fewer keystrokes for the same operations means less interruption when you are in a flow state.

If you come from a long Visual Studio background and your muscle memory is already built around those bindings, the Visual Studio keymap is the natural pick. If you are newer to the ecosystem or already comfortable in VS Code, the VS Code keymap carries those simpler shortcuts directly into Rider.

Skipping Plugins on First Install

[5:47 - 6:20] The final setup screen presents a selection of featured plugins: AI Assistant, IdeaVim, Azure Toolkit, and more. It is best to skip all of them on the first install to avoid troubleshooting complications. Plugins can be installed later once the base setup is confirmed working. Click Continue without selecting anything.

Activating the Free Non-Commercial License

[6:20 - 6:57] After the wizard closes, click the trial notice in the lower status bar. A dialog asks what you are using Rider for; for most readers, "Learning and self-education" is the appropriate category. Click "Login or Register."

The login flow opens a browser page. Sign in with your JetBrains account credentials. Once authentication completes, the browser shows a success confirmation and you can close that tab. Back in Rider, accept the non-commercial use agreement and click "Start non-commercial use." The trial notice disappears and Rider is fully activated under the free tier.

Creating a Project and Confirming the Setup

[6:57 - 7:48] With licensing sorted, creating a new solution confirms that everything is working end to end. From the welcome screen, click New Solution. The template picker reveals standard .NET SDK options like Console App and Class Library.

He selects Console App and configures it: output location set to a Rider Projects folder under home, project named ConsoleApp1, solution format set to .slnx, framework set to .NET 10, language C#. Click Create.

Rider scaffolds the project and opens the editor. Add a second line to the generated Program.cs file to confirm the project is correctly running:

Console.WriteLine("Hello, World!");
Console.WriteLine("This is from Rider.");

Console.WriteLine("Hello, World!");
Console.WriteLine("This is from Rider.");

Press F5 (with the VS Code keymap) or click Run. Rider builds the project and opens a terminal pane at the bottom showing:

Hello, World!
This is from Rider.

A successful build and correct output confirm that Rider is fully operational on Linux with .NET 10, with no additional configuration beyond what the Toolbox handled.

Adjusting the UI Scale

[7:48 - 8:13] Open Settings with Control+Comma and type "zoom" in the search box. Rider highlights every matching setting; these highlighted results make it clear which control does what.

Under Appearance, set the IDE zoom level to 150%. Every panel scales together: the file tree, the editor, the tool windows, the status bar.

One limitation worth knowing: Control+Plus and Control+Minus adjust only the editor font size. Using those shortcuts makes code text larger but leaves the file tree and tool windows at their original size, which produces an imbalanced layout. The Appearance zoom setting is the correct control for scaling the whole IDE uniformly.

Keeping Rider Updated via the Toolbox

[8:13 - 8:43] The Toolbox runs in the background and checks for Rider updates periodically. When a new version is available, it surfaces a notification. Applying the update is a single click inside the Toolbox, with no manual download or extraction required. This is the core payoff for installing through the Toolbox rather than from the raw archive.

To keep the Toolbox accessible after reboots, right-click the Rider taskbar icon and select "Pin to Panel." You can also search for the Toolbox itself in your application launcher and pin that directly. Either way, the updater is one click away whenever you need it.

The Toolbox also handles uninstalling Rider, rolling back to a previous version, and installing any other JetBrains tools you want to add later, all from the same window.

The Case for a Cross-Platform IDE

The underlying principle shared in the guide: the value of a development environment is measured by how little you think about it. Any time you are tweaking settings, hunting for a shortcut, or debugging why a panel looks different, that is time not spent writing code. A consistent environment, wherever you are working, keeps that overhead near zero. Whether the preference is Rider, the C# Dev Kit for VS Code, or full Visual Studio on Windows, the goal remains the same: get it set up, get comfortable with it, and then stop thinking about it.

[9:00 - end] To get started: download the Toolbox from JetBrains.com rather than the Rider archive directly, extract it to your home folder, and run the ./jetbrains-toolbox executable from the bin directory. After installing Rider, select your preferred theme and keymap in the launch wizard, skip plugins for now, and activate the free non-commercial license by logging into your JetBrains account. Scaling the Appearance zoom to 150% ensures the entire IDE is readable on any display.

Watch the full video on Tim Corey's YouTube channel for a live walkthrough of every step alongside a working Linux Mint desktop.