Can I Share an Installed Software on My Linux OS with Others as We Do on Windows?

Not in the same way as we do in Windows, but yes, you can share software on a Linux operating system.

On Windows, users can easily share an installed software by copying an .exe file, which installs the software directly. However, Linux offers a different means to achieve this. You can share a source package, and the recipient's Linux system can "build" the software from it, effectively installing the software on their system. Alternatively, there are binary .deb packages that can be shared and installed on Debian-based systems like Ubuntu.

While you can't directly cross-install between Linux and Windows systems using .exe files (Linux does not support .exe), you can share .deb files to install programs on other Linux systems.

How to Create a .deb Package from Installed Software

If you already have a package installed and want to create a .deb file, you can use dpkg-repack. This utility allows you to convert an installed package back into a binary .deb file. It's important to note that this process might preserve some configuration files from /etc, which can either be beneficial or unexpected.

Another method is to use the apt-get utility with the --download-only option to download the .deb files and share them.

Sharing .deb Packages Across Linux Systems

One of the simplest ways to share .deb packages across Linux systems is to copy the files from your computer to a removable drive. By default, .deb files are stored in the /var/cache/apt/archives/ directory.

To open Nautilus as root and copy the package, use the following command:

sudo nautilus

Keep in mind that the downloaded .deb packages may not install properly due to dependencies. To address this, use aptoncd.

Aptoncd: A Tool for Creating Disc Images for Linux Packages

aptoncd is a tool that helps create disc images from your downloaded cached DEB packages. To install aptoncd, use the following command:

sudo apt-get install aptoncd

To use aptoncd, follow these steps:

Select the Create button to create a disc with your downloaded cached DEB packages.

The packages are copied from the /var/cache/apt/archives/ directory to the disc.

APTonCD presents a list of your cached packages and automatically selects them all. You can deselect packages you don't want on the disc.

Add additional DEB packages or drag and drop them into the APTonCD window.

Click the Burn button to create an ISO image. You can specify the name and location of the image file, and optionally create a meta-package.

Select the Apply button to create the image. The file will be saved in the location you specified.

If you burnt the image to a disc, you can mount it in another Linux machine and install the packages using the meta-package named “aptoncd-metapackage.”

If you have the ISO image, you can mount it as a disc and install packages from it.

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For Geeks By Geeks