Linux AppImage (x86_64)
RecommendedOne file, no installation. Make it executable and run it — nothing is written outside the folder you keep it in.
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BASIC256-Linux-x86_64.AppImage
119.2 MB
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BASIC-256 for Linux
Two ways to run the same program: a single-file AppImage, or a tarball you unpack where you like. Take one — you do not need both.
Choose your download
Linux tar.gz (x86_64)
The same program as an ordinary directory, for when you would rather see the files or place them yourself.
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BASIC256-Linux-x86_64.tar.gz
132.3 MB
You need: A 64-bit x86 Linux distribution (x86_64 / amd64). On a Raspberry Pi or any other ARM machine, take the Raspberry Pi build instead.
How to run each of them
The AppImage needs only to be made executable:
chmod +x BASIC256-*.AppImage
./BASIC256-*.AppImageThe tar.gz unpacks into a directory you can run from where it stands:
tar -xzf BASIC256-*.tar.gz
cd BASIC256-*/
./basic256Neither writes anything outside the folder you put it in, and neither needs root.
Why the download is so large
Both formats bundle every prerequisite — Qt 6 and everything under it — so that they run on any distribution without you installing anything first. That self-containment is the whole point of an AppImage, and it is also why the download is so much larger than BASIC-256 itself.
Debian has a package
A Debian package lists Qt and the other prerequisites as dependencies instead of carrying copies of them, so it downloads a small fraction of what the files above weigh, and apt handles updates and removal.
The project does not build one, but Debian does. 2.1.0-1 is in Debian testing and unstable now, and is in line to reach stable with the next Debian release. Debian 13 (trixie) still carries 2.0.99.10, from before the 2.1 line, and distributions built on Debian — Ubuntu and Raspberry Pi OS among them — take it from there on schedules of their own.
So apt install basic256 gives you whatever your own release carries, which is usually behind this page. The AppImage and the tarball remain the way to run the current version on any distribution.
Somewhere else to run it?
BASIC-256 runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, the Raspberry Pi and in a browser tab — the same language on all of them.