What are pros and cons of this approach ?

Pros

  • Same packed executable able to run on wide range of Linux distribution no matter what libraries installed.

  • Executable packed on x86 able to run on x86_64 system without 32-bit compatibility libraries installed.

    • There are executables packed on RedHat 7.3 x86 that run on Fedora 8 x86_64.

  • Because all libraries are packed there is no way those application can be broken by host's libraries update.

  • It's simple - to pack executable no source code (and build tool chain) required.

Cons

  • Executables are huge.

  • Because all libraries are packed update for host libraries doesn't fix bug/security problem in packed applications.

  • Less effective usage of physical memory system wide.