They're not solving it well in many cases; so-called "portable apps" are a great thing. (If you don't believe me, consider why exactly Docker got so popular.)

They're not solving it well in many cases; so-called "portable apps" are a great thing. (If you don't believe me, consider why exactly Docker got so popular.) In a way, it's ironic that you need package managers to keep track of software on Linux, compared to Windows, which used to let you get away with the assumption that everything that makes a program lives in a single folder tree; half the software was effectively portable by default. Where's the irony, you ask? On Windows, you could almost say that an application install is equivalent to its folder. And a folder is a type of file. And per Unix philosophy, everything is supposed to be a file!