> Linux is stupid and sucks.

None of this is Linux's fault. I'd argue this is both C's and GNU's fault. The need for a copy of the library, seems to be just a tooling convention. GCC's linker requires it, so others do the same thing. The executable itself doesn't need to know where a given symbol is in a shared library's memory at runtime (or even what shared library a symbol comes from, just that it's inside one of the libraries declared as needed in its dynamic section), because that's the (runtime) linker's job to figure out. Regardless, you don't actually need a full copy of the library—a stub will suffice.

I don't know a ton about compilers, but as far as I know, there's no reason clang's linker (LLD) couldn't just not require an existing copy of the shared library you're linking to. Can't do anything about requiring a version of the libc headers you need for every platform though.

You’re totally wrong. Linux doesn’t suck. Merely all the tools you are required to use on Linux suck. Which for all intents and purposes means Linux sucks. IMHO.