It’s actually pretty simple. Pamac is a package manager, so by default it shows all packages (no filters enabled). Software Mode shows only applications without libraries, language packs etc. (filters enabled).
I’m guessing it’s named like this because it’s short. “Software Store simple mode” is very long name, so it will make pop up menu twice wide.
Just thought. Maybe instead of changing labels just add Help button linked to Manjaro wiki article, or documentation website where most of the options in Pamac will be covered in a way that someone whom first time installed Linux will be able to understand.
I get it now after i read it in the forum 
But when i saw it for the first time i had no clue.
4 Words is long, but maybe “Software Store mode” or “Appstore mode”(if that is allowed by the Fruit lawyers…) or even “Simplified mode”.
p.s. Yes, a small tooltip or ? button that links to help would solve the problem but i suspect it will be far more complicated than just renaming it.
Pretty much everything pamac installs is by definition ‘software’ - thats where the confusion comes from.
Some library, helper extension, codec, that some other package may need but is not a full application itself? Still software.
The name is bad.
Sounds good to me.
Adding tooltips is pretty easy in GTK. I think it would be less headache than renaming label, id and translation.
It would be intuitive to call it “Simple Mode” vs “Advanced Mode”, because “Software Mode” has no meaning at all.
Where is the “noob mode” alternative? /joking.
Second attempt at making a poll for this, cause as Yochanan pointed out multiple choice was not very clever. I tried to summarize the suggestions so far:
And the grammar police please forgive me - i have no idea if “only show apps” or “show apps only” or “show only apps” is the correct one here.
@bedna please vote again for the view.
I would say: Simple view → Einfache Ansicht (German) fits it most. There would be just that and you can enable it.
Let’s at least see the top 2-3 options and then the manjaro team can still make the final decision if it will be mode or view. At least we got rid of the word “software” And let’s concentrate on the English for know.
I actually use it from time to time when searching for GUI apps, I find it quite handy.
Since i could not understand what it meant, i have developed my own simple method of finding GUI apps: they have colorful icons and screenshot of the gui in the description. Not that the screenshots are zoomable and useful for any other purpose anyway.
My main issue is that since “Software Mode” is a binary switch, the name implies to me that we must be in the opposite mode when it is disabled, which I would interpret to be “Hardware Mode” (which obviously makes no sense).
Instead of “Show Apps Only”, I think I would favor the opposite wording of “Hide system libraries” or “Hide OS packages”, or something along those lines, although I acknowledge that this is still pretty vague.
The name was intended to be similar to software app store on other distributions
(formerly known as gnome-software and ubuntu-software)
When this feature was first added to pamac GUI it was turned on by default. But it caused a problem for users looking for AUR packages
Software mode was turned off a few months later
As this is a binary switch any user can turn it on and see how it functions
@cscs name did not seem to be a problem when it was first added to pamac
Just because I did not criticize it at that particular moment does not mean I cannot have had criticisms then or have them now.
IMO comment from 2020 was the simplest explanation of how software mode option functions
Right. Its an explanation of how it does function … not an opinion on how it should function.
(using its own terminology to define itself)
I reiterated what the mode was supposed to be and do ‘from pamacs point of view’.
I did not make a judgement on how successful it was in those aims, nor on whether that vernacular or those goals had any any merit.
I did so here though: the wording is a poor choice.
I do not believe my previous post precludes me from having this view.
For now, and due to its poor reliability to correctly perform a simple full system upgrade, I would even call it “Apps Browser” 
, because I only use it to read the target package’s description and dependencies and use pacman or yay via terminal to do installation/remove/upgrade.
Either of: User Mode ↔ Advanced Mode
… depending on which is the default, seems legit.
pamac is specifically developed by and for Manjaro, and none of the Manjaro developers — note: developers, not “team members” — are native English speakers. As a result, this does often lead to some very unfortunate translations from their native tongue into English. 