this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2026
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All the "software stores" I have seen: ubuntu's software center, flatpack are utter trash. Offensively bad. I'm not sure how you can even get the flatpack store without the terminal.
so, e.g. flatpak tells you to install flatpak via commandline on ubuntu. Apparently it's built into linux mint.
https://flathub.org/en/setup/Ubuntu
but when trying to install a random app,
https://flathub.org/en/apps/app.curocalc.calculator/install
the instructions are to "download file and execute", but my filebrowser doesn't have a "execute this file" option in my right click and double clicking does... nothing? Certainly doesn't give me a popup with either confirmation or error message.
I'm game to try a few more things, so if you have suggestions what I should try, please tell me.
I'm on xubuntu.
Not sure if this helps, but don't you need to right click and under permission allow it to run as a program?
Then I can often just double click and run
Flatpak is not a store, it's a package format. Mint has a built-in "Software Manager" GUI app that allows you to browse Flathub and install flatpaks from there. On Xubuntu, I guess you'll need to install gnome-software or Bazaar, or just the
flatpakpackage if you don't care about using a GUIThis is one of those intentionally misinterpreting posts that I really really... "dislike" in the linux community.
https://flathub.org/en
~~...which the official instructions don't mention, so it's not a valid answer. Again, I can get it to work, but that's not the topic of this thread.~~
My intention wasn't to misinterpret your post; I genuinely thought you were asking for help using flatpaks without the terminal on your Xubuntu setup. As for the topic of this thread, as a Bluefin user, I'd argue that we're coming very close of being able to daily drive Linux without ever opening the terminal at all.
(also, the Flathub instructions page you've linked on your post do mention installing gnome-software)
That is technically true, but
I hope you can see the problem with that.
It did read that page, it just didn't register because it's more command line stuff.
I heard the Debian 13 "software store" gives the user the choice between dpkg repo or flatpak for some major software (ig firefox, libreoffice) and that it was pretty lightweight and efficient.
Personaly as a software developer I always use the shell and mostly CLIs and TUIs, and I use Arch/Artix btw. Sometimes I try Flatpaks (for gaming purposes) but I'm always struggling with updates and huge need in storage. For a newbie advice, on Arch, I'd say : use AppImages for the software that isn't available on Arch repositories, it's by far the easiest thing to maintain during time and is surely the lightest.
In term of distribution, for a full GUI experience I'd go for Debian, or Mint Debian edition, but sadly for some hardware you still need workarounds that need the terminal use in after the OS install / updates.