i am interested in what the consensus is on this issue.
my interest is piqued by this paragraph from the introduction in Gerard Beekmans' Linux From Scratch 4.0 book:
Static linking describes a method of compiling software so that it does not require the presence of libraries when building is complete. The resulting program is able to function on its own. The program is able to do so because the pieces of the program that would normally remain in the libraries are copied from the libraries and built right into the program. Ordinarily, software is built with dynamic linking. This conserves storage space and increases the efficiency of many programs. We statically link our software in Chapter 5 because we will, in theory, be moving our development system to a virtual environment where the already mentioned libraries will be absent. If the software is built dynamically, our development suite will not function. Since the libraries we are talking about are provided by our distribution Linux, the goal of Chapter 5 is to build a development environment where those libraries are not required and is therefore independent of the distribution.
