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If an app is actively maintained then the publisher should be able to releash a patch to fix a security hole, regardless of whether that is in its main source c

If an app is actively maintained then the publisher should be able to releash a patch to fix a security hole, regardless of whether that is in its main source code or in the libraries it uses. If it is abandonware, then hoping that shared libraries will save you is at least naive. Currently shared libraries only cause pain to the linux desktop users. I always postpone updating my system because I don't want to deal with the broken dependencies. It is insane how bad the situation is.

kiwijamo 6y ago
I've used Debian as a daily driver on my laptop for several months now and I haven't observed issues with broken dependencies. I've observed that issue with other distros in the past (as well as the *BSDs) due to package managers that don't really have a good approach for dealing with complex changes to dependencies (e.g. the recent change in python default version in FreeBSD could not be handled by the package manager and needed to be done manually following instructions). I believe apt basically solves this problem surprisely well even in the face of complex changes. I think shared libraries are worth the small pain since it means that in the case of updating a library, only the specific library need to be updated with instead of everything that happen to statically link a library needing updating (if the upstream maintainer updates it in a timely manner or even at all!). A world where everything is statically linked would be a world where we were stuck with whatever the upstream maintainer decides is best for them and not what is best for the users.