Have a look at miller

FlatPak and snaps are not only solving the universal packing problem, but in addition: providing necessary libraries which are not present on the main system; an be installed on multiple architectures (x86, arm, etc); sandboxed.

You are thinking of Xed

My problem with matrix is that you need email address to use it. Compared to the irc, where you could just use whatever name and ask questions straight away. Most distros I used came with an irc client preinstalled and preconfigured to connect to the support channel when launched. In my opinion that is more beginner friendly.

Have a look at thinStation

A bit of history. The first universal packaging format was snap by Canonical and used to be called Click apps and it was made for the Ubuntu mobile OS and later to the Ubuntu desktop. Red Hat in response to that created the FlatPak format. The AppImages are community effort.

You can use bauh. it is a graphical app manager which can Install and update appimage, deb, flatpak, snap and web apps. https://github.com/vinifmor/bauh

In 2004, Microsoft was granted a patent on using a double-click on "limited resource computing devices". As a result of this, some observers fear that any U.S. company which uses double-clicking may have to change their product not to use the technology, pay licensing fees to Microsoft, or give Microsoft access to intellectual property.

Also there are plenty Ubuntu flavours that look different.

Have a look at KDE , it is a super welcoming community.