<aside> 🌐 Before we get into Discover, it should be mentioned that in some instances you’ll find .deb (designed for Debian) online which should work for MX Linux. Once you download the .deb file, MX KDE will likely default to trying to open it with ARK which would basically unpack the file instead of install it. You would actually want to right click on the file, go down to Actions, then Install Deb Files. Alternatively, you should be able to Open with Discover.
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Yeah, I did that on purpose in the title. One application that makes it easy to find, download, and install new programs within MX is called Discover.
Discover is essentially a software store, much like Google Play on Android, or the App Store on iPhone. The difference is that all of this software is freely available to you in an Open Source agreement.
As you explore the programs available, if you see something that looks interesting you can click on the entry and it normally has a summary of what the program is for as well as thumbnail images and some reviews from users.
Another way to get popular software onto your computer is the MX Package Installer. It’s less graphical, but is a quicker way to select a bunch of curated programs and install them all at once. You can find it by going into the Application Menu, and selecting the MX Package Installer icon on the left side of the menu.
The Popular Applications tab (shown below) is a great collection of programs which have been tested and work well with MX, sorted into convenient folders. You can also use the search bar at the top right if you happen to know the name of the program you’re looking for.
Next, the Stable Repo, MX Text Repo, and Debian Backports tabs are somewhat sorted from right to left as most compatible to potentially least tested repositories of software for MX Linux.
Flatpaks are a different kind of software in Linux, where instead of sharing common files with other programs on the system like a regular install, they are installed in their own box with everything they need to work and nothing shared with other programs on your computer. The real bonus for this is that a program that is designed to install as a Flatpak doesn’t have to rebuild the program to work in other Linux operating systems. They can automatically work with any OS that can use Flatpak.
One program we really like is ksnip which is found under Screenshot Utilities. It’s an application you can use to essentially take pictures of your computer screen, which can be really handy for showing someone else what’s happening if you need assistance. You can click the drop-down arrow, select the checkbox for ksnip, then click Install near the bottom right.
Once you get the message that Processing finished successfully, you can click OK to dismiss that message, and search for ksnip in your application menu at the bottom left of your screen.