Wire, the open-source and encrypted messaging service, is now available to install on Ubuntu (and related distros) by way of a secure repository offering verified packages.
“You can [install and] receive updates of Wire through the update mechanism of your own package management system. Updates are automatic and more secure as we sign the repositories with a PGP key,” the team say in a blog post to announce the APT repo.
Earlier builds of the Wire Linux app — which is in beta — were only available direct from the Wire website, and updates had to be installed manually.
Why Why?
Wire offers fully encrypted chat, voice calls, video and group chats with always-on end-to-end encryption, across platforms and devices.
‘Wire offers fully encrypted chat, voice calls, video and group chats with always-on end-to-end encryption, across platforms and devices’
Like the rest of their software the Wire Linux client is open source. You can glance over the code on GitHub to check nothing dodgy is going on, as well as report issues and contribute code.
Launching the Linux client late last year Wire said that “while many other platforms have neglected Linux for other operating systems, Wire sees this community of early adapters and savvy consumers as a huge asset to their product.”
Install Wire on Ubuntu via APT
If Wire is already installed on your system you should remove it before adding the repo and upgrading (nothing bad will happen if you don’t, but you’ll have two Wire apps installed which is a little silly).
Wire for Linux beta is currently available for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS or later. It supports both 32-bit and 64-bit distributions.
To add the Wire repository and PGP key run these commands (which I’ve shamelessly copied from the Wire APT announcement) in a new Terminal window.
1. First install apt-transport-https to fetch packages over HTTPS
sudo apt install apt-transport-https
2. Import the Wire PGP signing key to verify installed packages:
sudo apt-key adv --fetch-keys http://wire-app.wire.com/linux/releases.key
3. Add the Wire repo to your Software Sources list
echo "deb https://wire-app.wire.com/linux/debian stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/wire-desktop.list
4. Finally, update Ubuntu’s list of available packages and install Wire for Linux on Ubuntu with this command combo:
sudo apt update && sudo apt install wire-desktop
Wire for Linux is still a beta so you should expect bugs and crashes. Be sure to file feedback and point out problems on the Wire GitHub page.