New Linux user here. Is this really how I'm supposed to install apps on Linux?

You should try Linux because you want to and find it interesting to learn. If you are doing it because other people told you to, you are going to have a bad time.

Linux isn't Windows with different branding. Things work differently, and if you take the time to understand why you'll usually see the logic eventually, even if you may not to agree with it. I think folks are bristling a bit at your implication that things are hard on purpose somehow. Many experienced users find the terminal easier to use and more efficient; it shouldn't shock anyone (including you) that it's going to feel awkward when you don't understand it yet.

Howtos tend to use the terminal because it's likely to work the same for everyone regardless of what other choices they've made with desktop environment, etc.

You can do nearly everything with a GUI if you choose.

I don't recommend using anything new to you unless you are ready to learn it. If you are, welcome aboard!

Learning about package management, and repositories, is part of the Linux experience. It's worthwhile to dive into the documentation and figure it out.

There is a learning curve, but the rewards are more software independence.

I think a better way for the other user to have stated this, is learning Linux, while difficult at times, should be a fun and rewarding experience. I’m about a year in, and this is all easy stuff to me. One year ago? I would have been as frustrated as you are. But I persevered, I learned, and I got a sense of accomplishment out of becoming competent. I don’t really need to ask too many questions now, because the more I figure things out, the easier it gets to figure things out.

If you’re not into that, Linux might not be for you. But I hope it is, I hope you persevere and keep learning and find the same satisfaction from it that I have.

Look at it like this.

When you got your first smart phone, be it android or iOS, you didn't know where anything was, so there was a learning curve.

But, in the same way as phones, there are built in "stores". Those stores are called repositories, and they're accessible in more than one way. You don't actually have to use the terminal, it's just usually faster since you really don't type much more than you would entering a search in whatever GUI interface comes with your distro. Indeed, you can actually set up the commands in a notepad, change the package name each time, and copy/paste the commands, and you're only a couple of seconds slower than opening the package manager, searching, scrolling to find what you want, clicking to install... See what I'm getting at?

Windows isn't really faster than that. You have to go to a site, download, find the exe or msi in your download folder, then click in the various pop-up windows. And you can find .deb files that do the same thing as an exe or msi, just not for every program, because they're an unnecessary pain in the ass. It's extra steps.

I promise you, comparing the way Linux works now, and the learning curve it takes to the learning curve on windows back when it was a new experience (and I'm talking windows 95, the previous msdos shells were worse than that), Linux is way easier. And don't even get me started on how shitty a user experience DOS was. Jfc, I'm dyslexic, and it was a nightmare. Windows 95 wasn't a big jump better in dyslexia land, but it was at least better than DOS.

If you were used to something like mac only, and had never used windows, the transition would be similarly annoying. And, for me at least, dealing with installs on windows is more of a pain in the ass now that I'm used to package managers.

I did a clean install of Windows 7 on my media PC (and yes, you valiant security friends, it's air gapped) maybe two years ago. From start to finish, including programs, took me about five hours.

My laptop that I run Linux mint on? An hour, start to finish. The only differences in the programs installed are in specifics, not in types. I plugged in my live drive, hit install, and was ready to start installing programs in maybe twenty minutes. My media pc is an old gaming PC, btw. Tons of ram, ssd, etc. The laptop is an old thinkpad. So it wasn't like the laptop was better hardware lol.

Which seems tangential, but it's pointing to the underlying ease of use once you're used to the system. I've being doing windows installs since the nineties (and a little before, but only in classes), so it isn't like I'm not experienced. I've only been doing Linux installs since about 2015.

Hell, my very first Linux install was Ubuntu on my dad's old computer just to make sure I didn't screw a box up that was in use. Even that, going from Ubuntu being ready to go, and having the programs set up to use was only maybe two hours, and that was mostly looking up the very process that's been described by others in this thread and copy/pasting things in for each program.

So don't get discouraged. If you end up really not liking it once you get past the learning curve, that's okay, windows will still be there. You can go back to it. But, if you're like me at all, once that learning curve is past, you won't enjoy the extra hassles windows puts in the way.

IF you want it to work like windows. It's up to you, people here are giving you the options to choose whichever suits you.

Welcome to the community. As you can see, there are some that are quite helpful and others that are ... less so.

I agree with you that there should be a better way to do that. It's been a while, but I'm pretty sure the Chrome deb file handled all of that for you. I've always been confused why every company that sets up their own PPA didn't do that.

If you stick with it you'll eventually start to understand what all the jargon means.

• sudo is kind of like "run as admin" in windows. It runs whatever command as root(admin) instead of as your user. To use it you just add sudo in front of the command. Ex. "apt-get update" becomes "sudo apt-get update"

• apt-get is the command that controls your Ubuntu Repository. "apt-get update" basically checks for updates for everything on your computer. Then "apt-get upgrade" downloads and installs all those updates. And "apt-get install " is how you install apps that are in your distros Repository.

• A Repository is basically an app store for your distribution. Each Linux distribution usually has their own. And they have different software(apps) available in them. If a app you want is not in your repo there are different options to install it. That was probably the hardest part for me to understand when I started. But now days the easiest option is to use snap or flatpak to install something that's not in your distros Repository.

• As far as I understand, a package is just another way of saying app or software program. There might be a technical difference. But when you download a package you're basically just downloading the program/software/app.

• There are also package dependencies which is the other software that is required to run the software you're trying to install. When you run "sudo apt-get install ". You will see a list of packages that will be installed. This includes all the dependency packages. Which are the packages that are needed to run the one that you're trying to install.

Some linux distribution try to give you a GUI for everything. But its definitely worth learning how to do stuff in the terminal. Once you learn it you'll realize why it is so much better than a GUI.

My recommendation for learning this stuff is ChatGPT, ideally version 4

for ffs, please, ban this troll.

And if you're a real human, I have a recommendation: buy a dictionary. Once you can read simple words, move to coffee maker manuals. From there to children's books. And so, maybe one day, you will be able to figure out how to read a basic "getting started with ubuntu" article or something. You just switched to a complete different operating system and act so entitled as in "where is the start menu, this OS is so confusing".

The Linux community isn't toxic, it's the average non-linux user being as dumb as rock. And on top of that is also lazy.