To install Sun Studio 12 (includes CC) on a Linux operating system:

1) go to http://developers.sun.com/sunstudio/downloads/index.jsp and join the 
   Sun Developer's Network (SDN)

2) from the same page as above, select to download Sun Studio (Free Download 
   button)

3) select to Download the Product Tarfile

4) if the login comes up, enter your SDN user's name and password

5) accept the license and download both the x86 Linux Sun Studio 12 
   installation tar file and system preparation tool

6) right click on the Sun Studio installation tar file and open it with the 
   archive tool; extract it to a subdirectory (suggest "sun") in your home 
   directory  (this may take a while)

7) right click on the system preparation tool tar file and open it with the 
   archive tool; extract it to a subdirectory in your home directory; 
   execute the following commands

a) to list the missing software

   ./prepare_system -C      

b) to install the missing software

   on Ubuntu or other Debian Linux distribution

      sudo ./prepare_system -s missing_software_name,missing_software_name,...

   on Red Hat, Centos or Fedora

      su
      ./prepare_system -s missing_software_name,missing_software_name,...
      exit

8) finally, go to /usr/bin and make the following links (note:  "sun" is the 
   name of the directory that you created in your home directory during step 
   #6):

   on Ubuntu or other Debian Linux distribution

      sudo ln -s ~/sun/sunstudio12/bin/sunstudio
      sudo ln -s ~/sun/sunstudio12/bin/CC

   on Red Hat, Centos or Fedora
   
      su
      ln -s ~/sun/sunstudio12/bin/sunstudio
      ln -s ~/sun/sunstudio12/bin/CC
      exit

9) test the compiler and link by typing

   CC -version

10) test Sun Studio by typing

   sunstudio

You can make a launcher with this command as well.

Ubuntu, Red Hat, Fedora and CentOS come with the gedit program compiler, which 
is a very decent basic programming editor.  Check out "Edit, Preferences" to 
set it up the way you want it.

If you wish, you can download nedit stable binaries from 
http://www.nedit.org/download.php  After the download, use the archive manager 
to extract it to a subdirectory in your home directory.  Finally, go to /usr/bin 
and create the following link (note: "###" is whatever the rest of the nedit
directory is named)

   on Ubuntu or other Debian Linux distribution

      sudo ln -s ~/nedit-###/nedit

   on Red Hat, Centos or Fedora

      su
      ln -s ~/nedit-###/nedit
      exit

Test it by typing 

   nedit