either download the linux binaries from this page: https://nodejs.org/en/download/

Direct link: https://nodejs.org/dist/v10.15.3/node-v10.15.3-linux-x64.tar.xz Just unpack them

you can also use the official nodesource distro packages using the instructions at https://github.com/nodesource/distributions/blob/master/README.md

# Using Ubuntu
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_10.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

which would be my prefered way to achieve this.

You can download this file from the browser or from the console. The latter is shown below (note: the specific Node.js version might be different for you):

Example :

wget http://nodejs.org/dist/v8.1.1/node-v8.1.1-linux-x64.tar.gz

sudo tar -C /usr/local --strip-components 1 -xzf node-v8.1.1-linux-x64.tar.gz

 #tar options:

 -x, --extract, --get
   extract files from an archive

 -f, --file ARCHIVE
   use archive file or device ARCHIVE

 -z, --gzip, --gunzip --ungzip`

You may find list of node version on http://nodejs.org/dist/

You should now have both Node.js and npm installed in “/usr/local/bin”. You can check this typing:

ls -l /usr/local/bin/node ls -l /usr/local/bin/npm

*An alternative way to install Node.js via the package manager:

Installing Node.js via package manager

Steps to download and install node in ubuntu

Step 1: Download latest or recommended node .tar.xz file from https://nodejs.org/en/

or you can download node version 14.15.5 (.tar.xz file) directly from here ->

https://nodejs.org/dist/v14.15.5/node-v14.15.5-linux-x64.tar.xz

Step 2: Go to the directory in which (.tar.xz file) is downloaded.

In my case --> /Download directory

Step 3: Update System Repositories

sudo apt update

Step 4: Install the package xz-utils

sudo apt install xz-utils

Step 5: To Extract the .tar.xz file

sudo tar -xvf name_of_file

In my case --> sudo tar -xvf node-v14.15.5-linux-x64.tar.xz

Step 6: sudo cp -r directory_name/{bin,include,lib,share} /usr/

In my case --> sudo cp -r node-v14.15.5-linux-x64/{bin,include,lib,share} /usr/

Step 7: Check the node version

node --version

Result In my case -> v14.15.5

If you want to install and switch between multiple versions of node then nvm (Node.js version manager) is better option.

1. Check whether you have nvm or not. If not then you can pull down the nvm installation script from the project's GitHub page. The version number may be different, but in general, you can download it with curl:

   curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.31.0/install.sh -o install_nvm.sh
   

   Run the script with bash:

   bash install_nvm.sh
   

   It will install the software into a subdirectory of your home directory at ~/.nvm. It will also add the necessary lines to your ~/.profile file to use the file.

   To gain access to the nvm functionality, you'll need to log out and log back in again, or you can source the ~/.profile file so that your current session knows about the changes:

   source ~/.profile
   

2. If you have multiple Node.js versions, you can see what is installed by typing:

   nvm ls
   

3. You can install your specific node version by typing:

   nvm install 6.7.0
   

4. If you wish to default one of the versions, you can type:

   nvm alias default 6.7.0
   

5. Now you can also reference it by the alias like this:

   nvm use default
   

6. Check now node version to verify whether changes are made or not by typing:

   node -v