If you want to download a YouTube video on Linux you’re not short of options, with command-line tool yt-dlp the most featured and efficient method.
Prefer something a bit more graphic(al)?
Tube Converter is a solid option. It’s a GTK app providing a user-friendly front-end to yt-dlp. It lets you download videos in a variety of formats (including audio-only like MP3), quality options, and choose whether to fetch subtitles too.
Stable versions of the Tube Converter are available on Flathub but the most interesting stuff is happening in the beta channel. Having been rewritten in C#, the new Tube Converter beta boasts a cleaner architecture, faster downloads, queuing, and improved user-interface.
Sidenote: the C# port means Tube Converter is also coming to Windows soon – nice!
Notable improvements present in the Tube Converter beta include:
- Download progress/speed indicators
- Download YouTube playlists
- Queue system: downloads, completed, queued
- Option to set max number of active downloads
- View log(s) during download(s)
- ‘Open Save Folder’ button on successful download
- ‘Retry Download’ button on error
- Redesigned to better fit small screens/mobile devices
Though not planned AFAIK, I think app should probably use desktop notifications to let you know when a (lengthy) download completes (maybe with an option to open the save folder). Not a blocker to usage, though. Added in the release candidate.
If you want to try the Tube Converter beta — do keep in mind it’s a beta — you can get a development build via the Flathub beta remote. Details on doing that are listed on Tube Converter‘s GitHub releases page, where a .flatpak beta package is also offered.
