garybean wrote:Am I alone in feeling this 3rd party app availability for Mageia is an obstacle that needs attention?
This I cannot answer
3rd party apps are at the whim of the developer as to which package system they support.
Given that Chrome is a Google product, I am not sure if Mageia users would welcome it to be available- we like our privacy.
Alien is available in the repos, so just follow the instructions quoted, with the disclaimer, and you should be good to go.
Alternately, you can run up a virtual box - available from the repos as well, and run Debian (or your favourite derivative) for those applications you desire / need.