On Linux, thr best package type for a portable application is an AppImage since all the dependances are inside the AppImage, its all in one file and can run on any linux distro.

On Android, you dan download an APK and install it manually which is the closest thing to a portable Android app.

Therefore, in the service/server self hosting world. Are containers (docker/podman images) the equivalent to a portable executable of a service? AppImages downside is its size since all the dependancies are bundle with it. Containers not only bundle its dependnacies but the OS to run run them. For a stable, low incompatibility and low dependancy hell, are containers the way to go for portable services?

I know container images are not distributed as tar files often and mostly pulled from a registry, however they can be saved and loaded as portable tar files.