So now it is time to improve my development experience on this fresh Ubuntu VM. First step is to get a better code editor, and I select Visual Studio Code (VSCode) for the job.

To get VSCode visit:

https://code.visualstudio.com

I downloaded the .zip and then created a new folder under ‘Home’ called ‘Apps’

Using file explorer (Nautilus) I moved the zip from Downloads to Apps and extracted it.

Then per the instructions, I created a link using the command

sudo ln -s ~/Apps/VSCode-linux-x64/Code /usr/local/bin/code

This allows us to start VSCode in the current folder by typing

code . 

in terminal.

Also, to create the UI shortcuts I browsed to the Code executable using Nautilus, right clicked Code, selected ‘make link’ and dragged it to the desktop and rename it to VSCode.

I started code by clicking the shortcut and since it will be commonly used,
I right clicked the icon on Ubuntu’s side toolbar (Launcher) and selected “Lock To Launcher”.

All seemed fine but then I noticed a message in the lower right corner of VSCode, ‘failed to start OmniSharp’. Clicking on that reveals the message

VSCode uses Omnisharp for intellisense so this is a problem.

In the end the solution for me was to install the latest development version of Mono (4.2.1), using the command

sudo apt-get install mono-devel