Dynamic libraries, software distribution, and Rust

For the most part, Rust avoids using dynamic libraries. Instead, all of the dependencies of a Rust program are linked directly into the executable, and only select operating system libraries are dynamically linked. This makes Rust programs a little larger than you might expect, but a few megabytes are of no concern in the era of gigabytes. In exchange, Rust programs are very portable and immune to dynamically linked library version issues.

That means that, if a Rust program works at all, it's going to work on pretty much any computer running roughly the same operating system and architecture it was compiled for, with no hassles. You can take your release version of a Rust program, zip it up, and email it to someone else with confidence that they will have no problem running it.

This doesn't entirely eliminate external dependencies. If your program is a client, the server it connects to needs to be available, for example. However, it does greatly simplify the whole packaging and distribution process.