Comment by IshKebab
4 months ago
> What is stopping people from doing this?
Most Linux apps do not bundle their dependencies, don't provide binary downloads, and aren't portable (they use absolute paths). Some dependencies are especially awkward like glibc and Python.
It is improving with programs written in Rust and Go which tend to a) be statically linked, and b) are more modern so they are less likely to make the mistake of using absolute paths.
Incidentally this is also the reason Nix has to install everything globally in a single root-owned directory.
> The main barrier as far as I can see is that users do not like it.
I don't think so. They've never been given the option.
> Most Linux apps do not bundle their dependencies, don't provide binary downloads, and aren't portable (they use absolute paths).
That is because the developers choose not to, and no one else chooses to do it for them. On the other hand lots of people package applications (and libraries) for all the Linux distros out there.
> I don't think so. They've never been given the option.
The options exist. AppImage does exactly what you want. Snap and Flatpak are cross distro, have lots of apps, and are preinstalled by many major distros.