JetBrains announced the new 2024.2 release of its IntelliJ IDEA integrated development environment (IDE).

The release uses new clean and modern UI as default, while classic one is available as plugin. For Linux, it auto-places window controls to left or right depends on your desktop settings. And, it switched to JetBrains Runtime 21 with enhanced security, performance, as well as Wayland rendering support.

The 2024.2 now starts faster. It enables access to key features during indexing, including code highlighting, code completion, intention actions, test launching, active gutter markers, Lombok support, and more.

It also integrates K2 mode with Kotlin. Which, nearly doubles code highlighting performance, as well supports gradle.kts scripts, Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP) projects, all major refactorings, code highlighting, debugging, and more.

The release also has big improvements on its built AI, which now features GPT-4o model support, full line code completion, new Terminal tool window to generate commands with AI, and AI-assisted VCS conflict resolution.

For the ultimate edition, the release added GraalJS as the execution engine for the HTTP Client. enhanced IntelliJ IDEA’s Spring Framework support by adding gthe capability to run Spring Data JPA methods directly in the IDE, and improved cron extensions support by inline descriptions and autocompletion with pre-filled examples when implementing scheduled services with Spring, Quarkus, or Micronaut.

There are as well numerous other changes, including:

• Include code highlighting in inline code completion suggestions.
• New shortcuts to accept individual words or entire lines from longer suggestions.
• New preview option in Search Everywhere dialog.
• Auto detects and uses system proxy settings.
• Redesigned window control buttons to more closely matches Linux desktop.
• Redesign the Customize Main Toolbar dialog.
• Render mathematical expressions in Markdown files natively.
• New Performance tab for real-time CPU and memory charts, execution times, and memory snapshots.

For more about IntelliJ IDEA 2024.2, see the official announcement.

How to install IntelliJ IDEA 2024.2

The JetBrains website provides the official download packages for Windows, Linux, and macOS

For Linux, it’s a portable tarball with no installation required. Just download and extract it, then user may run the executable file to launch the IDE.

For choice, Ubuntu user can directly search for and install the IDE from App Center (or Ubuntu Software), which however is Snap package runs in sandbox environment.

IntelliJ IDEA is also available to install in most Linux through Flatpak package. And, there’s third-party PPA contains script to automatically download the official tarball and create desktop shortcut to well integrate into your Linux. For beginners, here’s a step by step guide shows you how to install it in Ubuntu.