I am closing this issue since it's been pointed out that the latest Fritzing is available in Ubuntu 23.04 (and 23.10).
Paul, it sounds like your issue is that you have a local copy of Fritzing in your home directory (/home/paul/.local/lib/fritzing/app/Fritzing) instead of using the version available in Ubuntu. If you uninstall the local version, Fritzing should work correctly.
I am closing this issue since it's been pointed out that the latest Fritzing is available in Ubuntu 23.04 (and 23.10).
Paul, it sounds like your issue is that you have a local copy of Fritzing in your home directory (/home/ paul/.local/ lib/fritzing/ app/Fritzing) instead of using the version available in Ubuntu. If you uninstall the local version, Fritzing should work correctly.