I also come from Archlinux. A few months ago I discovered the mpr repository [1]. It is essentially the same as the AUR bit for Ubuntu. The syntax is also the same as the AUR packages, so it is super easy to port a package to Ubuntu. I highly recommend it.

[1] http://mpr.hunterwittenborn.com/

> lots of software has to be installed by searching for "install XYZ on Ubuntu", and following some instructions that involve scary-looking command lines that mess with cryptographic keys and add repos to my configuration, or, for a real Windows experience, install from a deb and hope you remember where you got it from when it needs an update.

Ironically this is exactly the problem that snaps solve; what you describe is exactly why others complain about it.

Snap wouldn't be facing such a big backlash if it solved those problems without adding a whole lot of others. Even worse, they completely ignore better alternatives that exist.

>very Windowsy experience

>scary-looking command lines that mess with cryptographic keys

>for a real Windows experience, install from a deb and hope you remember where you got it from when it needs an update

Yeah I guess you didn't use Windows recently cause that never happens there

Googling for an exe or msi installer is fundamentally the same thing. Unless it's in the Windows Store, which it probably isn't.

Once installed, unless it has it's own phone-home for updates, you won't know if it's out of date.

To be fair googling for an exe is even worse. At least the weird apt incantations can be easily audited and understood by a proficient user, whereas on Windows you're running a binary downloaded from the Internet that you know is going to ask for superadmin permission to do its thing.

A third-party repo is the same: it's also an "Internet binary".

The AUR is slightly different in that (usually, there are some binary packages) you could in principle check the sources and build process before building it right there and then installing to the system with elevated privileges.