Need >=GTK 3.16 in my application. How to distribute?

Question

I am in need of GTK 3.16 for my application (for the GL Area and the FlowBox). I want to distribute my Program on several Linux distrubtions, such as Debian, Ubuntu, etc. The Problem is that some of them use too old libraries. How can I still distribute? Is there a binary package for Linux of the libs that I can add to my programs package using LD_LIBRARY_PATH ?

Answer 1

Binary distro-independent app distribution is unfortunately not a solved problem yet, not in a way that would be easy for the developer and safe for the user. That said solutions are improving fast and may be here quite soon. Personal favorite is Flatpak but it's not at "Just click a link" stage yet. Other alternatives include Ubuntus Snappy and AppImage .

If you want something that's easy for the user right now, AppImage is probably your choice. For the future, I think Flatpak has features (like runtimes and proper sandboxing) that will make it more appealing.