Ubuntu application deployment

So this is a newbie question for sure.
In windows when I want to deploy a release, I can either zip it up with all the .dll's or use Install Shield. Nice and clean.
In Mac I can use macdeployqt and make a nice quick .dmg

Ubuntu 12.04 is kinda ticking me off,
so many tutorials on how to make a debian package for my release version of a program
I ran the ldd command and found all the dependencies and went and copied them all to the
release folder. But it seems this isn't the right way to do it. Can I just leave all the release files and dependencies in one folder and just put it into a .tar.gz ? or should I make a debian package and if so, could somebody recommend a tutorial for me, because I'm finding so many different ways to do it, that it's driving me nuts....

You can create an installer or all-in-one archive just like for any other platform.

The only "trick" is that you need a start script that set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable so that the path of you libraries is searched by the runtime linker.

Creating a .deb package is like creating a package for an app store. More complicated, needs to follow certain rules, etc., but makes the app managable through the app store interface.

Since you seem to be comfortable with the non-app-store/single-installer approach my suggestion would be to go for that.

Cheers,
_

This tutorial is the best I found http://developer.ubuntu.com/packagin...-software.html

Thanks for the tips anda_skoa and john_god, going to do both ways