Given the movement to static linking in compiled languages like LLVM, Go, Rust for deploying self-contained servers and cross-platform single binary executables, I think this guy has clearly lost the argument.
Both him and the authors of glibc.
Both him and the authors of glibc.
In the same way as containers per application is trendy now. So far it we are encountering all the drawbacks and limitations that used to be known long time ago and that once leaded to dynamic loading...
Except that for using third-party libraries and distributing apps or games, there is no reason to use dynamically linked libraries here and also in software distribution.
I guess if you talked to iOS / Android app developers who complained about dynamically linked third-party libraries that slowed app execution startup times, desktop app developers who wanted a single statically-linked executable that prevents their app being hijacked with a malicious dynamically linked library via LD_PRELOAD or DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES or in general developers or users don't want to have to upgrade other dependencies using dynamically linked libraries to install your software, then I guess one can say it would be better to use static binaries here.
Who's to say that a hacker can simply modify a .dll, .dylib or .so in your game and enable developer cheats to ruin it. The authors point on LD_PRELOAD alongside with 'security benefits' is nothing more than outdated and has now been intellectually bankrupted.
I'm sure there's a ton of multiplayer games out there that statically linked things like libpng and networking libraries, and by now are an open door into the systems of anyone playing online.
you know that even when they are dynamically linked, the developer just ships the dlls next to the app right ?
I LD_PRELOAD (and DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES) code into every process I spawn from the command line, except setuid executables (and sometimes even then–I jump through the hoops necessary to make this work), because it lets me extend compiled applications in arbitrary ways to better suit whatever I want them to do. Saying that my usecase is "outdated and…intellectually bankrupted" just because you're not aware of the very real and very convenient benefits of function interposing is the real ignorance here.