You can install the Linux version on ChromeOS
Sublime Text is a proprietary text and code editor which is very popular among developers due to a simple, fast and distraction free interface, an ability to open all the files in a folder, support for third party plugins through a package control system, extensive language syntax highlighting, and a clickable minimap view of an entire file. Sublime Text runs on macOS, Linux, and Windows. Sublime Text is one of the best text editors around. Its licence keys can be shared across platforms. If you use lots of different operating systems it is beneficial to have the same editor.
Before you start!
Before you start, you'll need to ensure you have a Linux capable Chromebook. Most are! In Settings Type 'Linux' and if its there you are all set. If not, well you can try updating your Chromebook, and if it is still not there its time to get a new Chromebook.
TL:DR — Just take me to the link Sublime Text download page.
Contents
Installation on a Chromebook
Launch a terminal on your Chromebook, and check your system is supported. Type uname -m and you are looking for x86_64. Ok, so now look for Linux repos - direct downloads on the Sublime Text download site. For ChromeOS you need the 64 bit .tar.xz download. Once downloaded in ChromeOS the file is available in the Files application, copy it from there from 'My Files' to 'Linux Files'. Once its in 'Linux File' you can see it in the Linux terminal and you can extract the contents of the compressed download file from there.
$ tar xvf ./sublime_text_build_4126_x64.tar.xz
Once extracted, move the application to your desired location. Create two symbolic links, one for the command line subl and the other for the desktop launcher information file.
$ sudo mv sublime_text/ /opt/
$ sudo ln -s /opt/sublime_text/sublime_text /usr/local/bin/subl
$ sudo ln -s /opt/sublime_text/sublime_text.desktop /usr/share/applications/sublime_text.desktop
Main editing screen
Sublime is now available from the ChromeOS launcher
Changing the launcher icon
I used sublime to edit its own configuration file for the chrome os desktop, to apply an icon I found online to make it look nicer than the Linux icon that it displayed by default.
$ /opt/sublime_text/sublime_text.desktop
Edit the line starting with Icon= to contain the path to the desired icon file.
Recommended
Sublime Text seems to work just fine on Linux on a Chromebook. You have to spend a little time setting it up, and recognising that folders shared between ChromeOS and Linux are in special locations, but once you get over that Sublime Text is quite usable and of course if you use it already you will feel right at home.
