I didn't get it in my Xubuntu 16.04LTS. (see screenshot) I was able to get it with help here but should I be using it to get stuff? I like using it. But if not that, what's the alternative? The Synaptic Package Manager? Which is better? Thanks.

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Thanks. Good link. It's a shame it's going south. But how are people supposed to know about what's out there if it's just apt-get or synaptic? I mean, yeah, you can get information there but it's not the same as browsing the USC. What do people do?

Think
Research on the *buntu wiki and forums
Ask,
Google
Read.

There was life before Ubuntu Software Center, there will be life after, and it will be good: because LINUX!

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I think they are pushing snap as a multi distro system.

I still don't see why they're getting rid of it. Yeah, something about paid apps not being represented well there and not selling well, but the USC is so welcoming to non-techies.

But how will you know which snaps to choose from?

While there is a fine community built around Ubuntu and its spawn, Canonical is not a community but a for-profit company. They made a decision that they did not want to invest in maintaining this resource, that was not living up to the promise and plans they had made for it in the beginning.

Frankly, I never saw much use in it, but then I came to Linux with a long and strong OS Sysadmin and NetAdmin background. It is really a resource used to provide value for (and make money off of) people who do not KNOW what they want. I do not fit the "Target Demographic" well.

The thing is that it attempted to play out the Google Play position for android phones for the Ubuntu world, and never really quite fit. A rather neat idea that is just not going where they wanted it to go. Since it did not fit, they have every reason to go to something else rather than fix it.

What replaces it is what existed before it came along: the gui interfaces to the apt tools, Google, and the distribution wiki and forums. Less collected and commercial, but they still work, just as they have for EVERY OTHER (apt-based) DISTRIBUTION IN THE WORLD! This resource was not really that great. You can not only live without it, you have more and better choices than it offered.

Rather than agonize over it, have a look at the neat new toys they are working on. Linux has always (since at least 1996) been both a solid workhorse and a wonderful playground. We have new toys, why are we still discussing last years broken ones? It is christmas every day, go play!

Ha ha. Christmas every day! Gotta love that. So what are the gui interfaces to the apt tools? (For non-techies like me.)

I would suggest using apt-get from the command line as it's always available even if you break something to do with X11 (erm, I may have done once or twice, or more...) and it has been consistent for years. That said I like Synaptic and it's great for fixing broken packages without "typing and hoping" as those of us who don't spend hours researching tend to do.
Mind you I would also suggest moving away form Ubuntu but even typing that I feel wrong as I started using Ubuntu and I find it wrong to bad-mouth any distribution which actually works and Ubuntu does work.

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There is "Software" in Xubuntu, you don't need to install anything to install from repositories the GUI way. It's rebranded Gnome Software, as it is in Ubuntu 16.04.

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Thanks but what's wrong with Ubuntu? Do you just mean Ubuntu or Xubuntu, as well?

Thanks Captain. I did not notice that. (In my Xubuntu 16.04 it's just "Software.")

My very limited experience is that Canonical provide some decent setups but if you happen to have something other than that it will be more difficult to make it work.
Sometimes the "quick install" causes issues also.

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