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No you wouldn't because the app wouldnt bundle GTK libs because they are a standard on any LSB Desktop Linux.
Whatever. I'm not explaining it for the umteenth time just because some people can't wrap their heads around the fact that a Linux system without Gnome is still a Linux system. There is nothing standard about GTK, Qt, or half of the hundreds of libraries installed on any one Linux box.
I know this is going to blow your mind but until just 2 days ago I had a fully functioning desktop and GTK was nowhere to be found on my system. It only came along because I decided to use Midori and abiword.
The world isn't black and white. A massive core library should be installed seperately for just that reason, and dynamically linked. Small non core libraries should be statically linked, simply because it is not worth the extra 1k of memory you may be saving to make software deployment a total nightmare.




Member since:
2006-09-24
That's exactly the point. I have 78 binaries that use GTK. If I were on a a system with OSX packaging, I would have 78 instances of GTK compiled into the various apps I use that require GTK. As it is, Linux uses shared libs so I have exactly 1.
It would also mean a possibility of multiple versions of GTK being installed, depending on what version the particular app was built against. It would be a nightmare to try to keep up security updates on a system like that.
Then there is the problem of a particular library getting loaded multiple times for every app that uses it. If it's statically compiled or dynamically yet shipped with the binary, then I have firefox loading it's copy of GTK and Sylpheed loading it copy and so on. Freaking insanity. It wouldn't take long for people to get real tired of 10GB Linux installs that need 8GB of RAM to run.
Edited 2008-10-11 15:12 UTC