Comment 32 for bug 951929

I don't know about the rest of all the apps installing wrong, but Chrome I figured out how to fix it. With Chrome in particular it seems it is an error with Ubuntu Software Center's handling of .deb files. I was disappointed when they pulled the Debian installer a few generations ago in Ubuntu. I am not an avid Linux user, so I don't do command line where avoidable. I downloaded the debi installer or something similar and Synaptic's package manager. On my system the Ubuntu Software Center would not uninstall Chrome, and said it was a terminal only application. I used Synaptic to uninstall Chrome as I had the issues listed above. On a fresh install installing chrome downloaded as .deb file and using the Ubuntu software center.

Fix: Upon fresh install make your first install a Debian package installer application. Either use debi installer (something like that anyway) or use "debian-installer" on the Synaptic package manager.

This kind of issue really is disappointing on an "end user" version of Linux especially, since flash will become Chrome only in the near future. I don't know of any workaround yet for video streaming (which seems will soon be Amazon only via Chrome only, and way too soon at that), but your average "grandmother" as the Ubuntu documentation says Ubuntu is simple enough for would not know that .deb files are not handled very well. Perhaps most are, but not the one which is most likely to be the most common new user download and install .deb file...