# Installing IJulia

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/installing-ijulia/22755>\
**Category:** New to Julia\
**Tags:** jupyter\
**Created:** [April 4, 2019, 2:00pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/installing-ijulia/22755 "2019-04-04T14:00:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jlperla](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/jlperla/32/34332_2.png) [@jlperla](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jlperla)\
**Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 1:46pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/installing-ijulia/22755/1 "2019-04-04T13:46:57Z")

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Luckily, that part is easy. There are several ways to do it, but I think the easiest is:

- install Conda with [Anaconda | Anaconda Distribution](https://www.anaconda.com/download/)
- Go into your Julia terminal and type `] add IJulia`
- Then you should be able to run `jupyter lab` on your desktop terminal and you will be running

Alternatively, if you don’t want to install conda you can follow instructions in [https://github.com/JuliaLang/IJulia.jl](https://github.com/JuliaLang/IJulia.jl)

Out of curiosity, what language did you come to Julia from? I am curious of your mental model of global variables.

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**Author:** ![nilshg](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/nilshg/32/2283_2.png) [@nilshg](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/nilshg)\
**Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 2:00pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/installing-ijulia/22755/2 "2019-04-04T14:00:32Z")

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Sorry for slightly hijacking the thread, but as I understand it it’s not necessary to download all of anaconda to run IJulia?

The first run of the IJulia noteboook automatically installs miniconda, or alternatively if a user already has anaconda or some other Jupyter instance installed, they can tell IJulia to use that with `ENV["JUPYTER"]`

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jlperla](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/jlperla/32/34332_2.png) [@jlperla](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jlperla)\
**Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 2:10pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/installing-ijulia/22755/3 "2019-04-04T14:10:42Z")

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For sure, [https://github.com/JuliaLang/IJulia.jl](https://github.com/JuliaLang/IJulia.jl) has those kinds of instructions. I think installing conda is the most idiot proof (and the easiest to manage conda upgrades, etc) but it is not necessary

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nilshg](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/nilshg/32/2283_2.png) [@nilshg](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/nilshg)\
**Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 2:27pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/installing-ijulia/22755/4 "2019-04-04T14:27:31Z")

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Not sure I agree - unless I’m misunderstanding something, installing conda will not change the fact that when you do `using IJulia; notebook()` for the first time, IJulia will install its own, private miniconda version, and run notebooks through the jupyter in that miniconda.

The way to change this is to follow the instructions you link to around setting the python/jupyter environment variables, but if anything that seems to me to be less idiot proof and more prone to breakages than having IJulia and Conda.jl manage everything for you in the background.