How hard is it to make a program designed for UBUNTU work on MX? (WICKR messenger for example)

It is quite common for some programs that aren't in the repositories (their own download page), may specify Ubuntu as a prerequisite.

Ubuntu being based on Debian... is it really that hard to make programs for Ubuntu work on MX?

How much software compatibility will I be giving up, if I move from an Ubutu-based distro to MX?

For example, Wickr - does anyone here have experience with it on MX?
It specifies Ubuntu as a prerequisite.
I've ran into problems with it after it worked fine for half a year, under Mint, and tech support refused to help me on account that Mint isn't Ubuntu according to them (but it is). So I was basically on my own.

This may seem like a stupid question to some, and I'm sorry about that, but I would be new to MX, coming over from Mint.

site says "The current build only works with Ubuntu 16.04 64-bit, and not 16.10."
If you MX is = that build of Ubuntu, it may work, it may not.

Originally Posted by Habitual site says "The current build only works with Ubuntu 16.04 64-bit, and not 16.10." If you MX is = that buid of Ubuntu, it may work, it may not.

OK, and Wickr tech support also told me that it won't work on a Mint which is based on Ubuntu 16.04 either. (and it worked perfectly, until an update)
I don't know either which version of Debian Ubuntu 16.04 is based on... but their system requirements are bullshit anyways!
The agent who tested it, told me that she installed Ubuntu in a virtual box environment, and wasn't able to re-create my problem. Guess what: the screenshots she provided as proof were from an old Ubuntu 11.04 I think, with the Unity DE. So they're really full of it, and you can't rely on what they say. They just want to avoid the headache of supporting more than one Linux environment, to make life easy on themselves, but are too incompetent to even update their own OS images.

Anyways, I'm asking if any MX user here has successfully used it on MX.

Not sure you exactly have to build it as such. Take the program and attempt it. Usually I use the command sudo dpkg -i package name. Then read the go or no go lines.

I downloaded the more recent Ubuntu package named below and it appeared to install correctly.

jb@ULTRA:~/Downloads/WickrMe-4.42.3
$ sudo dpkg -i wickr-qt_5.9.4_amd64.deb
Selecting previously unselected package wickr-qt-5.9.
(Reading database ... 360652 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack wickr-qt_5.9.4_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking wickr-qt-5.9 (5.9.4) ...
Setting up wickr-qt-5.9 (5.9.4) ...

But it is nowhere to be found, doesn't launch, and the executable can't be located:

jb@ULTRA:~
$ which wickr-qt-5.9
jb@ULTRA:~

If this is important to you, you might make a package request on the Forum and see what the packagers can do, if anything.

Originally Posted by Jerry3904 I downloaded the more recent Ubuntu package named below and it appeared to install correctly. jb@ULTRA:~/Downloads/WickrMe-4.42.3 $ sudo dpkg -i wickr-qt_5.9.4_amd64.deb Selecting previously unselected package wickr-qt-5.9. (Reading database ... 360652 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack wickr-qt_5.9.4_amd64.deb ... Unpacking wickr-qt-5.9 (5.9.4) ... Setting up wickr-qt-5.9 (5.9.4) ... But it is nowhere to be found, doesn't launch, and the executable can't be located: jb@ULTRA:~ $ which wickr-qt-5.9 jb@ULTRA:~ If this is important to you, you might make a package request on the Forum and see what the packagers can do, if anything.

Interesting.
That is exactly my experience with Wickr on Mint 18.3, which I believe, is based on the version of Ubuntu they require. It installs, and then you can't find it. However, versions ago, just months ago, it installed and worked fine.

OK, I found WIRE, just for everyone's info, in case any of you were following this thread for Wickr (super-secret messenger). Turns out Wire does more, recently went through a security audit, and implemented all recommended chages to make it most secure. And it's available for ALL platforms (IOS Android Windoze, Web, Linux debian, Linux other)

1) do you have a link?
2) did it install and run OK on MX-17.1?

That’s why I don’t like Ubunutututu it’s too windows want a be, having to create software for a Linux box that is specifically written for that distribution, to the point that the source won’t even compile to work on another Linux box.

But that’s what I do, I just look for the source code to see if I can compile it and get it to run. dependencies, and development packages, you do know and understand that part of compiling source code, yes?

I’d use the, give it a try and see, approach.

packages for xenial and earlier have a greater chance of success on stretch-based distros, in my experience.