skunkos wrote: ↑Wed Apr 11, 2018 12:15 am
Basically, Linux is MORE friendlier to application bundles and addresses portability problem better than Windows.
1. It allows to clearly separate files which belong to application from the rest of the system.
2. It allows to easily create packages for all major Linux distributions (
https://github.com/jordansissel/fpm).
3. Your system does not get messed and filled with crazy OS files by the time. When you uninstall a package, all its persistent files are gone, no leftovers are left behind (except for configuration files, which are stored in WELL-DEFINED user folder, not spread all over in 100000 folders).
4. AppImage is probably easiest solution to bundle your app+dependencies into single executable.
5. Overall administration of installed software is a piece of cake when compared with Windows. You can update literally all programs with single command line command, no restarts after updates needed (except when you need to load new kernel urgently), no forcing of adware, spyware and updates. No unwanted telemetry. Openness.
Now this is just false. GNU/Linux distributions suffer from much worse portability problems than Windows.
Most importantly, a Windows program is bundled with its dependencies, whereas a GNU/Linux program is stored in a package that
depends on other packages, so that installing program X automatically installs all its dependencies as well. If you attempt to run a program without installing its dependencies, it will crash on startup. Worse, because
dependencies of dependencies are also handled this way, programs/libraries tend to require very recent versions, and different versions aren't binary compatible, even bundling the dependencies won't help you if you're running pretty much anything except the distro the program was compiled for. The exception is if you're using a container such as AppImage, Flatpak or Snap; see OP.
Regarding point 2, FPM is used by almost nobody as far as I know.
Regarding your remark in point 3, the folder to store configuration files has been well-defined on Windows ever since Windows NT 3.1 (1993). It's %APPDATA%.