IDL is a commercial tool for data visualization with its own programming language.
See also: https://www.l3harrisgeospatial.com/Software-Technology/IDL

A installation download is available from the STRW Linux desktop environment under directory:

/strw0/downloads/idl_8.8

in which you will find versions for Linux, MacOS and Windows

Install the appropriate package for your operating system.

If you run IDL on your laptop, you need to point it to our license server. For this you need to setup a ssh tunnel that maps you local port 7070 onto the license servers port 7070. THis can be done on Linux using the ssh command line tool:

ssh -g -L 7070:license.strw.leidenuniv.nl:7070 yourstrwusername@ssh.strw.leidenuniv.nl

Now keep this ssh session alive as long as you need to run IDL.

Once you have done so, and once you have installed the software you can run the harrislicense tool to obtain a license from the license server. To do so execute the tool and choose option 'Use License Server' and fill in for the server name: localhost. Then connect. You should see a green bar which mentions connection success.

Then you need to borrow a license from the server by choosing option 'Borrow Licenses from a Server'. In the big text block select the IDL 8.8 License (...XXXX) line. After that the button 'Borrow from Server' changes from gray to black and you can now click it. (you may change the 'Borrow time (days)' if needed before getting the license.

This concludes getting a license to your laptop. Now you are ready to start working with IDL full capability set!