The Windows desktop proprietary softwares I see are usually distributed as statically compiled binary only files, possibly with some dlls, and the needed data files bundled in a package unpacked in a Program Files folder. This is possible because the Windows application developers know that their users will all have a computer with an x86_64 CPU from Intel of AMD with a Windows XP or higher OS installed, which will run their Visual-Studio-compiled binaries without complaining.
So, can I expect something similar in the Unix world? I often find the "compile yourself" way of program distribution inconvenient for simple purposes. Say, I want to ask a friend to test my program for a Linux machine. Apart from whether or not they have a Linux computer, I don't want to ask them to install all, possibly 10 or more, dependencies. A distro with a decent package manager will do this job quite simply, but not all versions of Linux have a good package manager. Also, when it comes to running "make install" manually, it is often nearly impossible to uninstall.
Is it generally possible in Linux to distribute a software binary-only expecting that it will run nicely at least in computers with an x86_64 CPU and a Linux OS installed? For example, distributing as a zip folder with which the user can simply unzip and double-click "start" or type "./start".
