Ubuntu patches the kernel, and glibc. They are not binary compatible. Ubuntu's stuff is synced from debian unstable, which is a moving target. So, for a dynami

Ubuntu patches the kernel, and glibc. They are not binary compatible. Ubuntu's stuff is synced from debian unstable, which is a moving target. So, for a dynamically linked application, you need to build specifically for Ubuntu. With a statically linked app, that is distrobuted with its libraries .. you can make a generic linux application that should work just about everywhere. Mint is a completely different story. They don't patch the kernel, or stuff like that. They just preinstall different packages from the Ubuntu repo, and have a different default user-skeleton. (different default settings in userspace). They also add some extra GUI tools and scripts. But they are Ubuntu, just like HP Windows is just Windows and run Windows applications.