Installing Atom is a straight forward process. It requires few external dependencies, and those which are required are easily installed, with most projects providing binaries or a simple Python setup script. The sections below describe how to install Atom and all of its dependencies from scratch, starting with the installation of a Python runtime. The instructions assume that the user’s system has a C++ compiler and the Git command line tools installed and available on the system path.
The Easy Way
If installing and building Atom and its dependencies from scratch is not appealing, the free (and unaffiliated) Anaconda Python distribution provides a complete Python environment which comes with a reasonably recent version of Atom and a host of other useful packages.
If you have a working C++ compiler, you can install using pip:
$ pip install atom
Supported Platforms
Atom is known to run on Windows, OSX, and Linux; and compiles cleanly with MSVC, Clang, GCC, and MinGW. However, primary development of the framework occurs on Windows (7 and 8), so some quirks and bugs may be present on the other platforms. If you encounter a bug, please report it on the Issue Tracker.
Atom is a Python framework and requires a supported Python runtime. Atom currently supports Python 2.6 and Python 2.7. Python 3.x support may be added in the future, but is not currently a high priority item.
The most recent Python 2.x series releases are available on the Python Downloads pages. Installers are available for Windows and OSX. Linux users should install Python using their OS package manager.
Setuptools is a Python package which makes installing other Python packages a breeze. Some of the installation instructions below assume that Setuptools has been installed in the target Python environment. Follow the relevant Setuptools Install instructions for adding the package to your system.