Fedora App Store Alternatives: Komi Store Has No Release Review

GNOME Software and KDE Discover are front ends, so they can be swapped out​

The How-To Geek piece separates two tools that Linux newcomers often mix up. The package manager, which is DNF on Fedora, downloads and maintains packages from the distribution's official repositories. The software manager is the graphical store where you browse descriptions and screenshots. It usually sits on top of the official repositories and can also handle other sources. Because the store is just an interface, you can replace it without touching how Fedora installs system packages.

The author's complaint is based on personal experience. They describe both default stores as slow to load and buggy. Their example is searching for an app, seeing an empty screen, and assuming the app wasn't available when the results simply hadn't loaded yet. That's one user's account, not a measured benchmark. Still, it's a common frustration, and it explains why someone who likes browsing a store would look beyond the terminal.

The defaults do their job. Fedora's developer documentation says that once the Flathub repository is set up, you can browse and install Flatpaks from GNOME Software or KDE Discover, from the Flathub website, or from the command line. GNOME Software shows a Flatpak's source as "flathub.org". Discover has supported Flatpak repositories since version 5.12. Moving to Bazaar therefore gives you a different interface to the same Flatpak remotes, not access to a different package format.

Fedora's documentation also covers a step that many guides skip. Flathub is a remote you add yourself, and it's separate from Fedora's own Flatpak repository. The documented command to add Flathub is:

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub [url]https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo[/url]

Fedora's own Flatpaks, which are built inside Fedora, use a separate remote:

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists fedora oci+[Quay](https://registry.fedoraproject.org)

Whatever store you use, it can only show you what the configured remotes contain.

Bazaar puts Flathub first, and its repository has moved to GNOME GitLab​

Bazaar's project metadata describes it as "a fast and modern app store for Linux with a focus on discovering and installing Flatpak apps and add-ons, particularly from Flathub." Its listed features include queuing several installs while you keep browsing, viewing app permissions, signing in to Flathub to manage favorites, and searching apps from GNOME Shell. It's licensed under GPL-3.0-or-later, and its app ID is io.github.kolunmi.Bazaar.

In How-To Geek's hands-on account, Bazaar opens on an Explore page with new and popular apps and themed collections such as productivity, graphics and App of the Day. A Library page lists installed apps and pending updates, and there's a Search page. App pages carry the information shown on Flathub: description, screenshots, download size, license and security details. The author also describes a monthly download counter that opens a world map of downloads by region, and a Support button that links to the developer's donation page. The author credits the speed to a multithreaded design that runs downloads in parallel. Treat that as the writer's explanation and impression, not a measured result.

Bazaar works with the Flatpaks you already have, which makes switching less disruptive. It's FOSS notes that Bazaar's installed view shows all the installed Flatpak packages on your system, even the ones you did not install via Bazaar. It also says that by default, Bazaar includes applications from Flathub repository. But if you have added additional remote Flatpak repositories to your system, Bazaar will include them as well. When an app exists in more than one remote, you can choose which one you want to use from the application page. FOSS Force saw the same thing in its testing: Bazaar's installed list already included the Flatpaks on the machine.

Bazaar is also more established than an enthusiast pick might suggest. FOSS Force reported in October 2025 that, though still officially in beta, it was already the goto app store for a couple of distros based on Fedora's immutable Silverblue, which are tied to Flatpaks by design: Project Bluefin and gamer-focused Bazzite. Bazzite's documentation says Flatpaks can be graphically installed, upgraded, and uninstalled via the Bazaar app store.

If you're looking for the source code, go to GNOME's GitLab, not GitHub. According to the old GitHub repository, the main Bazaar repository was moved to on Tuesday, August 18, 2026 (2026-08-18). The contents of this repository are no longer up to date. The GitHub copy is archived and read-only, and Bazaar's Flathub listing now points to GNOME GitLab for bug reports, source code and translations. The Flatpak ID hasn't changed, so the install command still works as long as the Flathub remote is configured:

flatpak install flathub io.github.kolunmi.Bazaar

It's FOSS adds that if you are using Fedora or Linux Mint, you can install Bazaar from the software center of respective distributions as well.

Users of image-based variants have seen one rough edge. In a Bluefin community discussion, a user said that after Bazaar moved from being preinstalled in the image (RPM package) to being preinstalled from Flathub (as a flatpak), it stopped listing their per-user Flatpaks and always installed apps system-wide. That's a single report from one distribution's packaging change, not a confirmed bug in general. Anyone who relies on --user installs should check how Bazaar handles them before retiring their old workflow.

Gear Lever integrates AppImages but doesn't help you find them​

AppImages address a different problem. How-To Geek compares them to portable apps on Windows. No central repository like Flathub sits behind them. A developer posts the file on a website or GitHub, and you download it, mark it executable and run it. By default the app doesn't appear in your launcher and doesn't update itself. The author mentions two apps they wanted that are only published as AppImages: OpenWhispr and Komi Store itself.

Gear Lever fills that gap. Its project page lists one-click integration into the app menu, drag-and-drop from a file manager, keeping all AppImages in a single folder, opening new AppImages directly, and update management that lets you keep older versions or replace them with the latest release. It also saves command-line AppImages under their executable name. In How-To Geek's walkthrough, you drop a downloaded AppImage into the Gear Lever window, and it moves the file into its managed folder, creates a launcher entry and lets you start the app from inside Gear Lever.

Updates depend on the AppImage. Many ship with embedded update metadata that Gear Lever can read. For those that don't, you can set a custom update source yourself. Don't assume every AppImage you drop in will update on its own.

Gear Lever's command-line tools, added in version 3.0.0, will interest administrators and scripters. The project says the CLI uses the same logic as the graphical app. Its documented options include:

• --integrate integrates an AppImage, and --remove trashes an AppImage along with its .desktop file and icons.
• --update updates an AppImage, and --set-update-source sets or clears a custom update source.
• --list-installed and --list-updates report integrated apps and available updates. Adding --json produces machine-readable output with schema_version: 1.
• --fetch-updates checks for updates in the background and sends a desktop notification. The project says it's meant to run at system startup.

The JSON entries include each app's name, path, desktop ID, current and available versions, download size, update manager, whether its update source is embedded, and whether it's running. Missing metadata appears as null. You invoke the tools with flatpak run it.mijorus.gearlever, and the project suggests adding alias gearlever='flatpak run it.mijorus.gearlever' to .bashrc. The standalone Flatpak bundle from GitHub, installed with flatpak install --bundle --user gearlever.flatpak, does not auto-update. It's better to get Gear Lever from a Flatpak remote so it keeps itself current.

Gear Lever asks for a D-Bus permission to talk to Flatpak, which it uses to open apps and refresh the system menu. The project says that if you disable the permission, for example in Flatseal, Gear Lever keeps working except that it can't open apps directly. Gear Lever doesn't scan or verify the files you give it. What you integrate is only as trustworthy as where you downloaded it.

Komi Store turns GitHub, Codeberg and Forgejo releases into a catalog, and nobody vets it​

Komi Store, originally called GitHub Store, is the most ambitious of the three. The project calls itself a cross-platform app store for developer releases, and it now covers Codeberg and Forgejo alongside GitHub. It lists Linux, Windows, macOS and Android as supported platforms, and you can filter results to the one you're using. Its GitHub repository shows about 18,700 stars and 1,835 commits, so it has a large following for a tool this new.

In How-To Geek's use, you can search by app name or by describing what you need, such as "to-do list" or "Notion alternative". Selecting an app opens a page with screenshots, the README, the icon, star and fork counts, the license, and the number of release assets. You choose the asset that matches your system and install it, and Komi Store handles automatic updates afterward. The author found a weakness in search: results come from matching repository metadata. AppFlowy shows up for "Notion alternative" because its repository describes itself that way, while Logseq, which many people would also call a Notion alternative, doesn't appear. That's an observation from one user's searches, but it shows the limit of any catalog built from project descriptions instead of editorial curation.

Komi Store's own disclaimer is the main caveat. The project says it helps you discover and download assets that third parties have already published. It doesn't review or validate installers and doesn't guarantee they're safe, malware-free or suitable. Responsibility lies with the authors and distributors, and you install at your own risk. How-To Geek gives the same warning: it's GitHub, anyone can upload anything, and the risk is the same as downloading from a repository's releases page by hand. A GNOME Software user browsing Fedora's repositories is getting software that went through a distribution's packaging process. A Komi Store user gets whatever the repository owner uploaded.

Komi Store also runs on Windows through WinGet and Scoop​

Komi Store is the one tool here that WindowsForum readers can use outside Linux. The project documents a WinGet install that still uses the old package identifier from its GitHub Store days:

winget install zed.rainxch.githubstore

It also offers a Scoop bucket:

scoop bucket add komi-store [GitHub - komi-store/komi-store-scoop-bucket · GitHub](https://github.com/komi-store/komi-store-scoop-bucket)
scoop install komi-store/komi-store

On macOS it installs through a Homebrew cask. The project warns that Apple may say it can't verify Komi Store because the app isn't notarized yet. The workaround is System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway. The project's install notes list those Windows and macOS methods, but the Linux package format isn't specified. How-To Geek says it found Komi Store as an AppImage, which is where Gear Lever comes in.

For anyone who dual-boots, this means one interface for browsing developer releases on both a Windows partition and a Fedora install. On Windows it works alongside WinGet and doesn't replace it. WinGet's own manifests describe the Komi Store client, but the apps Komi Store installs come straight from the forge release pages, with the same lack of review described above.

Choosing the right tool for each Fedora format​

Pick the tool that matches the format you actually install. If most of your apps are Flatpaks, as they probably are on Fedora Silverblue, Kinoite or another atomic variant, Bazaar is the natural replacement for daily browsing. If you've collected AppImages, Gear Lever turns loose files into integrated apps you can update. Komi Store is worth installing only if you already get software from GitHub releases and want that process organized. Don't use it as a general store for people who don't check what they install.

Workstation users who mostly install RPMs from Fedora's repositories can keep their current setup. Bazaar is Flatpak-focused, so it doesn't browse or install DNF packages. You'll still need GNOME Software, Discover or dnf for those. Keep the default store installed and treat these tools as additions.

• Confirm that Flathub is configured with flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub [url]https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo[/url] before installing Bazaar, because any Flatpak store only shows the remotes you've added.
• Install Bazaar with flatpak install flathub io.github.kolunmi.Bazaar, and file bugs or read the source on GNOME GitLab, since the GitHub repository was archived on August 18, 2026.
• If you install per-user Flatpaks, check that Bazaar lists and installs them the way you expect, because at least one Bluefin user reported otherwise after Bazaar switched to Flatpak packaging.
• Get Gear Lever from a Flatpak remote rather than the standalone bundle, which does not auto-update, and set a custom update source for any AppImage without embedded update metadata.
• Use gearlever --list-updates --json with --fetch-updates if you want AppImage update checks in scripts or at startup.
• Treat every Komi Store install like a manual download from a forge's releases page: check the repository's owner, activity and history first, because the project says it doesn't review what it serves.

These three tools show a broader trend on Fedora: the default software center no longer has to be the only way in. Bazaar is already the default store on Bluefin, Bazzite and Aurora, and its move to GNOME's GitLab puts it under GNOME's World group of community projects. Gear Lever's JSON-capable CLI makes AppImages scriptable, and Komi Store brings forge releases to Windows, macOS, Android and Linux. You can use all three together, as long as you know which ones install packaged, reviewed software and which ones hand you whatever a developer uploaded.