On Windows or Mac, an application is self-sufficient: it contains all the dependencies it needs to be executed. On the one hand, this creates more file duplication, and on the other hand it simplifies packaging for the developer.

Based on this premise, efforts have been made to have the same pattern on Linux (as opposed to a repository/distribution-specific package). Today, several solutions offer a self-contained package on Linux. We suggest you study one of these solutions: AppImage. This particular tool is gaining traction in the Linux community. There is a growing number of developers relying on AppImage to package and deploy their application.

AppImage is a file format that contains an application with all its libraries included. You download a single AppImage file, execute it, and you are done: the application is running. Behind the scenes, an AppImage is an ISO file on steroids, mounted on-the-fly when you execute it. The AppImage file itself is read...