Many distributions have a policy to reduce code duplications.
  One means to avoid such duplications is to use shared libraries
  instead of using libs that are ofter shipped for convenience.

  Fedora:
  http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:Guidelines#Shared_Libraries

  Debian (Section 10.7.4 of Debian policy):
  http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-files.html