> And i do not want to upgrade all applications if there is a bug in, say, libpng or libfreetype.

I don't think many people have problems with the idea that core system libraries could be dynamically linked. But Linux distros take this to a ridiculous extreme. I absolutely do not care if a bug in libgmp means my package manager updates the 2 apps I have installed that use it instead of 1 library.

Would be really interesting to see some actual stats about this though. How many library projects do people have installed that are depended on by more than say 3 apps? I'm guessing it's under 100.

I think that's the approach Flatpak takes with it's "runtimes" and it seems like a very sensible one.