Comment by michaelmior

> Why, again, software in the Linux world has to be packaged for multiple distributions?

Because a different distribution is a different operating system. Of course, not all distributions are completely different and you don't necessarily need to make a package for any particular distribution at all. Loads of software runs just fine being extracted into a directory somewhere. That said, you absolutely can use packages for older versions of a distribution in later versions of the same distribution in many cases, same as with Windows.

> And to the boot, you don't have to go through some Microsoft-approved package distribution platform and its approval process: you can, of course, but you don't have to, you can distribute your software by yourself.

This is the same with any Linux distribution I've ever used. It would be a lot of work for a Linux distribution to force you to use some approved distribution platform even if it wanted to.