This was something I wrote up last year as a contrast to the
when to NOT make a portable version thread. I was hoping to develop it more, but decided to share in it's current state.
- Product Demos – if your whole point is just to show basic functionality, saving any settings at all might not make sense. Even if it is, having the tool and all the settings available on a USB stick or downloaded from your website makes it easy to exhibit.
- Creating cross-platform tools – WINE has over time been a lot happier with programs that are self-contained. It may not run perfectly but it’s often faster and has lower overhead than most platform-agnostic tool sets (especially Electron).
- Promotion - There are many ways to promote your program such as adding features or posting on freeware websites, but one draw is to release a portable version. It doesn't have a huge audience but, unlike some features, you'll generally see users who otherwise wouldn't look further.
Any other cases where a dev should be making their software portable?
