Modern package management systems have vastly decreased the challenges associated with distributing Linux applications, but there are contexts in which centralized package management is inconvenient or needlessly complex. Since there is still room for improvement, there is value in experiments that aim to provide insight into the potential of alternate application deployment solutions or new technologies that could be used to augment existing package management systems.

One such experiment is Glick, a runtime-less application bundle system for Linux. Glick allows developers to store an entire program and all of its associated data in a single self-contained ELF executable that can run without requiring installation or a runtime component. Glick can be used to package virtually any existing Linux application in this manner.

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