Applications and bundled libraries

“Package installation for Linux distributions has traditionally
separated libraries and application binaries into different
packages, so that only one version of a library would be installed
and it would be shared by applications that use it. Other operating
systems (e.g. Windows, MacOS X) often bundle a particular version
of a library with each application, which can lead to many copies
and versions of the same library co-existing on the system. While
each model has its advocates, the Linux method is seen by many as
superior because a security fix in a particular commonly-used
library doesn’t require updating multiple different
applications—not to mention the space savings. But, it would
seem that both Mozilla and Google may be causing distributions to
switch to library-bundling mode in order to support the Firefox and
Chromium web browsers.

“One of the problems that distributions have run into when
packaging Chromium—the free software version of Google’s
Chrome browser—is that it includes code for multiple, forked
libraries. As Fedora engineering manager Tom “spot” Callaway put
it: “Google is forking existing FOSS code bits for Chromium like a
rabbit makes babies: frequently, and usually, without much
thought.” For distributions like Fedora, with a “No Bundled
Libraries” policy, that makes it very difficult to include
Chromium. But it’s not just Chromium.”

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