I used Daniel Mota's documentation a bit, but needed to modify some of his commands:

You can get the necessary mysql workbench deb here

First run the following:

sudo dpkg -i mysql-workbench-gpl-5.2.40-1ubu1104-i386.deb

As you know this will fail about the dependencies. Then wget and install the following:

wget https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+archive/primary/+files/libzip1_0.9.3-1_i386.deb

wget http://launchpadlibrarian.net/94563300/libmysqlclient16_5.1.58-1ubuntu5_i386.deb

Next install:

sudo dpkg -i libzip1_0.9.3-1_i386.deb

sudo dpkg -i libmysqlclient16_5.1.58-1ubuntu5_i386.deb

• If you're using 64bit, you'll want this instead:

  
  
  

  wget https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+archive/primary/+files/libzip1_0.9.3-1_amd64.deb
  
  sudo dpkg -i libzip1_0.9.3-1_amd64.deb
  
  
  
  wget http://launchpadlibrarian.net/94808408/libmysqlclient16_5.1.58-1ubuntu5_amd64.deb
  
  sudo dpkg -i libmysqlclient16_5.1.58-1ubuntu5_amd64.deb
  
  

Then run the following:

sudo apt-get -f install python-paramiko libzip2 libmysqlclient18 mysql-client mysql-common python-pysqlite2 libdbi-perl libdbd-mysql-perl libplrpc-perl libnet-daemon-perl mysql-client

This too will fail, and ask you to re-run, just re-run it again:

sudo apt-get -f install

When that completes it should be installed for you, leave a comment if you run into any snags and I'll try and see if I can help you further.

Launch it once from either your terminal mysql-workbench or Unity Dash, once it's in the launcher, right click on it and select "Lock to Launcher".

I have not used this program to know whether or not it is stable after installation, YMMV.

In the comments Peter K. let me know this was not working in Ubuntu 16.04. So here is the easiest way to get it working in Xenial. I still followed the link above to get the latest mysql workbench deb file (MySQL Workbench 6.3.7 at the time of this correction)

This is how I pulled it down and placed it in /tmp :

wget -P /tmp http://dev.mysql.com/get/Downloads/MySQLGUITools/mysql-workbench-community-6.3.7-1ubu1604-amd64.deb

I used the chmod command in order to make the .deb file executable, then used dpkg -i to install it (use sudo if you are not switched to root alread):

chmod +x /tmp/mysql-workbench-community-6.3.7-1ubu1604-amd64.deb

sudo dpkg -i mysql-workbench-community-6.3.7-1ubu1604-amd64.deb

You will see the failed dependencies:

dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of mysql-workbench-community:

 mysql-workbench-community depends on libtinyxml2.6.2v5; however:

  Package libtinyxml2.6.2v5 is not installed.

 mysql-workbench-community depends on libzip4 (>= 0.10); however:

  Package libzip4 is not installed.

To remedy this, use apt to help resolve (fix) the dependencies:

sudo apt-get -f install

This will show you the missing dependencies allowing for you to install them without any further steps.

The following additional packages will be installed:

  libtinyxml2.6.2v5 libzip4

The following NEW packages will be installed:

  libtinyxml2.6.2v5 libzip4

You should now be able to launch mysql-workbench in Xenial.