The youtube-dl tool makes it very easy to download both webm and mp4 files on Linux systems. You just need the tool and the right URLs. Credit: Alvarez / Getty Images Who would have imagined that there’s a Linux tool available for downloading YouTube videos? Well, there is and it works for Linux as well as for other operating systems. So, if you need to watch some of the available videos even when your internet connection is flaky or you need to be offline for a while, this tool can be especially handy. The tool for downloading videos is called youtube-dl. (The “dl” portion undoubtedly means “download”.) It’s very easy to use and drops webm or mp4 files onto your system. Both formats provide compressed, high-quality video files that you can watch whenever you like. The youtube-dl tool is a Python-based command-line tool. On Linux, it requires Python (2.6, 2.7, or 3.2+). The command to install it on Ubuntu and related systems is: $ sudo apt-get install youtube-dl Once installed, you can use a command like this to download a video after selecting the URL from YouTube or some other source: $ youtube-dl Related content how-to How to examine files on Linux Linux provides very useful options for viewing file attributes, such as owners and permissions, as well as file content. By Sandra Henry Stocker Oct 24, 2024 6 mins Linux how-to 8 easy ways to reuse commands on Linux Typing the same command again and again can become tiresome. Here are a number of ways you can make repeating commands – or repeating commands but with some changes – a lot easier than you might expect. By Sandra Henry-Stocker Oct 15, 2024 5 mins Linux news SUSE Edge upgrade targets Kubernetes and Linux at the edge SUSE Edge 3.1 includes a new stack validation framework and an image builder tool that are aimed at improving the scalability and manageability of complex Kubernetes and Linux edge-computing deployments. By Sean Michael Kerner Oct 15, 2024 6 mins Edge Computing Linux Network Management Software how-to Lesser-known xargs command is a versatile time saver Boost your Linux command line options and simplify your work with xargs, a handy tool for a number of data manipulation tasks. By Sandra Henry Stocker Oct 11, 2024 6 mins Linux PODCASTS VIDEOS RESOURCES EVENTS NEWSLETTERS Newsletter Promo Module Test Description for newsletter promo module. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe