[dijit]

Maybe something similar to how apple have "application packages" now?

each program is confined to it's own directory by default and has everything it needs to run.. if it depends on something in the OS, it's aware it's there because of the release version and distro..

this could be done easily in a manifest file (you can ask yum for instance what's installed).

maybe I'm overthinking it, maybe it's a horrible idea.

[vezzy-fnord]

Apple are in the position of having full control over their platform and thus they're able to seamlessly work out separation of base system and applications with regards to the various quirks (API/ABI stability, symbol versioning, etc.) that are inherent in contemporary dynamic linking.

Some distributions have tried a similar approach. PC-BSD has the PBI format. Slax uses compressed file system images for packages. There's solutions like 0install (and tons of predecessors) that have tried to do it. None have really caught on.

[pjmlp]

This is also the Android and Windows approach (Phone, Store and upcoming 10[0]).

[0] From the GDC presentations about Windows 10 features.