precompiled binaries live

So the Linux derivatives seem to have become stable enough in the last 5 years that something compiled on 2010 era Fedora 13 with just enough of the libraries static actually runs on 2014 era Ubuntu 14.04.1. libc-2.12 is forwards compatible with libc-2.19 but libc-2.19 is not backwards compatible.

With that, the next Cinelerra release reintroduced the concept of a precompiled binary for the 1st time in decades. Cinelerra only works because most of its libraries are static. Libraries as mundane as JPEG & TIFF still undergo constant redesigns, many times per year.

The idea has always been to make as many libraries static as possible. The C library could not be static because of a problem with runtime linking modules. Other libraries seemed stable enough to dynamically link. Even then, it's not as self contained as Firefox.

It's a small miracle that Firefox/Mozilla/Netscape has always worked in binary form. They just put all of its libraries in a self contained directory & tested against every single operating system. Google Earth tries the same thing with less success. It would be a good idea to put the rest of Cinelerra's libraries except the C library in its own directory.

Sadly, this kind of software is not economically viable. Computer science these days is about learning new languages, not using the languages.