I wish there was a right click install button for deb files (programming.dev)

submitted 1 day ago by RommieDroid@programming.dev to c/linux@programming.dev

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I know it's not that hard $ dpkg -i but opening the terminal gives normies an aneurysm and thanks to the crazy gatekeeping gen alpha doesn't know what a file type is now.

I use Ubuntu btw. Personally, the App store's on Linux confused me a ton, setting up Flatpak and some other package repositories. I much preferred the windows way, shocker, with just downloading and double-click the exe file.

Do I have to make a pull request myself to get this done, or what is the debate on this?

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[-] grue@lemmy.world 0 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

That's a bad idea because you have no clue if any random .deb file is actually compatible with your system or not (a .deb intended for use on Debian Bookworm will not necessarily work on Ubuntu 25.04, or vice-versa, for example). And that's on top of the security issues and lack of dependency resolution that others have mentioned already. If you're new enough to Linux that you don't feel comfortable with the terminal, you should not be trying to install things via .deb file to begin with.

[-] Successful_Try543@feddit.org 3 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

Doesn't apt (not apt-get), unlike dpkg, perform a dependency resolution before installing a downloaded deb package?

this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2025

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