Why so vague in you descriptions Mig21?
Your question sounds like a bunch of nonsense at best.

Heh. Can you please clarify? I'll try to explain better if you tell me what descriptions you don't understand. :)

Like what program specifically this would apply to.

It doesn't apply to a specific program - it applies to many programs, for example:

1. pretend you are a developer of a windows application
2. you port your application to linux
3. you want users to download your application from the web and run it

That can be pretty much any application you can think of.

If you want examples of applications that don't have packages for many distributions - go to freshmeat.net and look around, you'll find plenty. And there are many that are not on freshmeat.

It would seem then you are advocating making it easy for inexperienced users to be able to install untested software on their Linux distribution at best, at worst malware unbeknownst to any user. Neither purpose is really good.
You continue to be vague for the sake of proving your argument the least bit coherent.

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rant, please ignore if you're not 2damncommon:

I assure you, 2damncommon, convincing you that I'm right will not give me any pleasure. I have better things to do with my time.

What I'm doing in this thread is looking for feedback - I got a lot of it already and I hope for more still. You're not helping.

And if you care to stop talking out of your ass - go and look at autopackage - the 'stupid user installing a virus off the internet' scenario can be worked out just fine using autopackage.

end rant
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Autopackage solves a different problem - it's for installing software. I'm interested in being able to run (not install) software.

I agree with 2damncommon, there is no need for this because most people use there package manager not grabbing random packages off of random untrusted sites

I am going to disagree with this. Respectfully. :)
Do explain how telling me this applies to "many programs" and telling me to search "freshmeat.net" is not vague.
Before deciding who is talking out of their ass provide a specific example.

mac example: coconutidentitycard
 

i don't know if there is any program that can execute directly after download on a mac. here is an example with one more step (unzip):
http://coconut-flavour.com/coconutid...ard/index.html

after it unzipped one can run it immediately. but this is because it's actually a package. inside it we have coconutIdentityCard.app/Contents/MacOS/coconutIdentityCard which is a binary with -rwxr-xr-x, without any permission change.

this is from a source that i have no idea (or trust) but i double click and run it - i understand that i am not in admin of my mac so it doesn't do significant damage to it if any. in this paticular example of course it doesn't at all as the only thing it does is the one it advertises.

i'll let you security experts comment on this.

shen