Quoting Howard Chu <hyc@highlandsun.com>:
Yes. The other thing this gives you is the ability to distribute minimal-sized patches for your apps. If you find a bug in a function, just send out the object code for that single function, and your users can relink their binaries with exactly that patch. Of course, you need a good version numbering system to keep your sanity here.
Oh wow - I hadn't even thought of that one! Combine with a distribution-channel style of upgrading like yum or whatever, and you can have binaries automatically
patched really quickly as soon as they become available. I don't see any of the issues I have with rpm, nor the "compile the world" problem of gentoo and similar systems - just a lot more features and options in exchange for .. not stripping the symbol table from the binary. I really like it!