So true - I packaged C++, C and recently Python app for Linux and it takes me so much time even if I try to automate as much as possible. I hate it. I needed to read through poor or obsolete documentation, non-existent guides and tools, do ugly tricks, use various exceptionsto make it usable/work ... and now generative AI policies and exceptions. I use Linux exclusively for ~30 years, but packaging for Windows via winget was actually much simpler:-/
It is not ironic. Windows is designed from ground up to make independent software deployment by proprietary software vendors as easy as possible. Easy deployment is Windows' raison d'être. It is the antithesis of Unix which is hostile to that. That's what was behind "Developers! Developers! Developers!".
